# Zirbe — Email as Chat — Your inbox, like texting > Email client that transforms inbox threads into a chat-like messaging experience. (iPhone/iPad app by Excelano LLC.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/zirbe-email-as-chat/id6778170645 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Excelano LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/6772653375) - Category: Productivity, Utilities - Price: Free - Rating: 5.00/5 from 1 App Store ratings - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 26.0 · 17 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-07-14 - Data updated: 2026-08-26 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/zirbe-email-as-chat/id6778170645/reviews.md ## What is Zirbe? Zirbe is an email app that looks and feels like a texting app while keeping real email underneath. A conversation in Zirbe is a mail thread, not a person: the subject is the title, the people on it are the members, and every message is a bubble in time order. The same person writing you about five different things becomes five conversations, which is how email actually works. Starting a new conversation means naming it, and that name is the subject. Underneath the chat is a full email client. Read and reply with bubbles, attach photos, files, or a recorded voice message, and open what you receive in a full preview to save or share it. Reach every folder, not just the inbox: archive, move, and organize, save and resume drafts, and send blind copies that stay blind. React to a message with a tapback that rides your own mail as a real reply, so another Zirbe user sees the badge and every other mail app sees a readable line. Search within a conversation, pin the threads that matter to the top, and block a sender to sweep their mail to Junk and keep it there. New mail arrives with a local notification and a badge, and a reply that fails to send waits as a tap-to-retry bubble instead of vanishing. Sender photos come from your own contacts, and typing a recipient suggests people from your address book. Zirbe is private by construction, not by promise. It connects only to your own IMAP and SMTP servers over an encrypted connection. There is no Zirbe server, no account to create with us, no analytics, no telemetry, and no third-party SDK. Your mail is cached on your device so the inbox opens instantly and works offline; your password lives in the device Keychain and is never synced off the device. Remote images in HTML mail are blocked until you choose to load them, so opening a message never phones home. Because the whole app is open source, every one of these claims is something you can check for yourself. Zirbe works with any email provider that supports standard IMAP and SMTP with an app-specific password. Sign in with your address and an app password, and if your provider is a common one the server settings fill in for you. Zirbe is free and MIT-licensed. It is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple. iMessage and Messages are trademarks of Apple Inc. ## Key features - Chat-style email interface - Organized threads by subject - Offline access and instant inbox - Attachment support (photos, files, voice) - Full email client functionality - Privacy-focused, no Zirbe servers - Open-source code ## Frequently asked questions about Zirbe ### What is Zirbe's primary function? Zirbe transforms your email inbox into a chat-like interface. It displays email threads as conversations with messages as bubbles, making email management feel more like texting. ### Does Zirbe have ads? No, Zirbe is ad-free. The application is free and MIT-licensed, with no advertisements included. ### How does Zirbe handle privacy? Zirbe is built with privacy as a core feature. It connects directly to your IMAP and SMTP servers via an encrypted connection, with no Zirbe servers, analytics, or telemetry involved. Your mail is cached locally for offline access. ### Can Zirbe be used offline? Yes, Zirbe works offline. Your mail is cached on your device, allowing for instant inbox access and offline functionality. ### What email providers are compatible with Zirbe? Zirbe works with any email provider that supports standard IMAP and SMTP. You can sign in with your email address and an app-specific password, and common providers will have their server settings pre-filled. ### Is Zirbe available on multiple platforms? Based on the provided data, Zirbe is currently supported on iPhones. Information regarding availability on other devices like Android or desktop is not specified. ### How often is Zirbe updated? The latest version of Zirbe is 1.0.1, last updated on August 25, 2026. This indicates a recent update, suggesting active development. ### What is the user sentiment for Zirbe? Zirbe has a perfect rating of 5.0 stars from 1 rating, indicating very positive initial user sentiment. This suggests users find the app highly satisfactory. ## Version history (last 2 releases) ### 1.0.1 — 2026-08-25 Deleting a conversation now simply deletes it. Trash a thread, or a whole selection of them, and they leave the inbox and stay gone instead of flashing back for a moment on their way out. Attachments are reachable while you're reading in the web view. Any files an email carries now sit in a row above the message, ready to open, save, or share, so you no longer have to switch back to the chat view to find them. Search is faster and stays fast. It matches from the start of a word as you type, ignores accents, and no longer slows down as your mail piles up. Everything else got lighter too. Syncing does less work, the inbox and conversations scroll more smoothly, and opening a thread while new mail is arriving no longer stutters. As always, Zirbe talks only to your own mail servers. No backend, no analytics, no third-party SDKs. ### 1.0 — 2026-07-14 No release notes. ## More apps by Excelano LLC - [Blick for Microsoft 365](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/blick-for-microsoft-365/id6772653373) All apps by Excelano LLC: https://appshunter.io/developer/6772653375 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-26.*