Inbox clever

US – The My Blend app creates a personalised, magazine-style experience for consumers who increasingly use their smartphones to access lifestyle content.

• The founders claim that the average consumer has 2.9 email accounts that they use to categorise work, social and lifestyle content
• My Blend makes use of digital-first features such as swiping and pinching to help users manage their inboxes, creating a scrollable ‘magazine’ of images

In a world of inbox overload, visual-first browsing systems are gaining traction. Brands have been quick to capitalise on this trend through innovative, engaging newsletters that involve rich media, as we recently reported with Nike’s Margot vs Lily series and Lena Dunham’s inbox magazine Lenny.

In recognition of the fact that most consumers consume lifestyle media on smartphones and email, MyBlend aims to make the experience more digestible. It places all lifestyle-related content into a separate folder and translates it into a scrollable visual feed.

Simplified functions, such as swipe to unsubscribe or archive, brings MyBlend more in line with the digital-native mindset, and the overall effect is to create an email experience ‘more like a magazine and less like a spreadsheet’, according to the app founders.