Email App Hop Launches on iPad and Adds Multiple Account Support, Android Beta Coming Soon

Today, email app Hop, which we previously covered is launching on the iPad.  The update to Hop brings an iPad-native view to the app, but also adds several new features including the ability to add multiple email accounts to Hop.  According to Hop co-founder, Erez Pilosof, the ability to support multiple email accounts was by far the biggest requested feature since its original launch back in October 2013.

The idea behind Hop is to turn email into a more real-time conversation platform by emulating instant messaging.  As we previously wrote:

When you first jump into the Hop app, you have four email options to choose from: Gmail, Yahoo, AOL and iCloud. After signing into your email account, you’re presented with an inbox featuring two views: Chats and Incoming.

The Chats view is Hop’s attempt to group back-and-forth conversational emails together — think an IM inbox like you’d find in Hangouts or Facebook Messenger, or even the text inbox of any phone.

The Incoming view is reserved for all of the remaining messages: email lists, account updates, etc. Basically, the kinds of emails you don’t typically reply to. You get a different sounding alert when you get a “Chat” email as opposed to an “Incoming” email, which Hop states will help you decide which message is worth pulling your phone out for.

So far users who are using Hop are really liking it, the problem up until today was that it was iPhone only.  As a Hop user myself, I can say that going back and forth from Hop to a traditional email client can be frustrating because it’s an inconsistent experience.  I’m happy to see the iPad version launching today as it now offers one more place I can use Hop to manage my email.  That being said, Hop still has bigger plans.

The company is launching an Android beta in the next few weeks and plans to have a desktop/web version of Hop within the next few months.  To me, once Hop is available on all the platforms I use that is when it will be most useful.  And I can’t wait.

Other new features in today’s update (which also includes an update for the iPhone) are:

• Open or send photos and documents directly to Dropbox, Evernote and Twitter.
• Browse all shared images and documents with thumbnail preview.
• Swipe-and-hold to archive, trash or mark messages for later.

Have you tried Hop? What do you think?