The latest version of the Vivaldi web browser comes with an email client, calendar tool, and RSS feed reader built-in.
I sometimes refer to this Chromium-based browser as the Swiss-army knife of software due to its gargantuan array of of options, preferences, and feature integrations it makes available to users out-of-the-box (which range from arcade games to productivity timers to note-taking).
Today, Vivaldi introduces Vivaldi Mail 1.0. This is a fully-fledged desktop email client that is built-in to the browser. It supports multiple email accounts (including popular web mail services like Google and Fastmail, etc), search, and calendar and RSS feeds.
A beta version of Vivaldi mail was made available in 2020.
The software company says it “designed Vivaldi Mail around speed, elegance, and, of course, customization (which is our main strength and the pure awesomeness that we strive for)”. Having played with Vivaldi Mail on and off for a while I can say it certainly lives up to those claims.
You can learn a bit more about the effort in this short video:
I should stress that I am a web-mail guy. I have been for as long as I’ve been doing this site. While I still setup my emails accounts in Thunderbird and Geary (so I can keep tabs on those apps) 99% of the time I “do” email in a browser tab,
Which makes Vivaldi Mail an intriguing proposition to those in my situation. Like web mail, Vivaldi Mail works ‘in’ the browser, alongside all my other tabs.
However, unlike a traditional web-mail provider Vivaldi Mail does its thang™ on your computer rather than a remote server someplace else. It can also work offline with few limitations (tip: enable the option to prefetch mail for an even greater offline experience).
Visually, Vivaldi Mail feels like Thunderbird mixed with a modern web mail service. While the “default” set-up is eminently usable this is Vivaldi product so, naturally, a giddying set of filters, toggles, and settings to customise look, layout, and behaviour of the client.
Vivaldi Mail features:
- Multiple account support
- Assortment of filters
- Layout options
- Automatically detects mailing lists and mail threads
- RSS feed support
- Works offline
- Search feature
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Support for text signatures
You’ll find more information over on the Vivaldi website alongside links to download Vivaldi for Windows, macOS and Linux. Vivaldi is free but not open-source software. Select the ‘Fully Loaded’ option when setting up the browser to enable the mail, calendar, and RSS feed features.
Already got Vivaldi installed? You can enable Vivaldi Mail by going to Vivaldi > Settings > General. Scroll to the Productivity Features section at the bottom, then check/tick the ‘Enable Mail, Calendar and Feeds’ box.