Hushmail - Free Email with Privacy

I've heard that Hushmail is supposed to be doing some upgrades to their service, including getting a new webmail interface. Don't know the 'when' or 'what' of it all, though.

 

Hi Foggy,

We're aiming to have the new Hushmail ready towards the end of the year. We still have work to do, but we're using it internally and it's going well.

After seeing your post we put up an early screenshot to help answer the "what": https://help.hushmail.com/entries/312804-see-the-new-hushmail

More screens & details to follow in the coming weeks.

Hope that helps,

Toby
Hushmail

 

Hi, Toby !

Thanks for the information and the screenshot !

Question: is there any chance that Hushmail will increase the storage quota for free accounts ? Two Mb is rather minuscule by today's standards. How about at least 50 or so ? Or maybe a middle-of-the-road service level, say, $10-$15 per year, 200 Mb storage, and hosting of one domain ? Any such changes planned that you are allowed to reveal ????

 

Incidentally, I can't quite decide whether the interface looks like Gmail or AtMail. Did Hushmail use one or the other as a starting point ?

 

Hi Foggy

We're in the middle of some upgrades to our storage infrastructure that will make it easier to have more storage for free accounts. So, that's something we want to review soon, maybe early in the new year. We agree that 2 MB isn't quite enough these days Unfortunately we haven't determined an actual number or info on new pricing just yet.

Toby

 

Hi Foggy

We didn't use a specific service as a starting point, but in places we were definitely inspired by some of the other sites. But I think when you use it you'll find it to be unique & hopefully very likeable.

Toby

 

Thanks for the update, Toby. I'm looking forward to seeing the 'new' Hushmail !

 

Thanks for the screenshot.

Interesting and looks really good. I have the option of renewing my Hushmail subscription at the beginning of next year. Depending on how good the new interface turns out I will either renew or switch service. Today's interface is a pain and outdated long ago. I also hope that you not just change the skin but remodel the interface so it works/looks good on laptop screens (which most people use these days) and has more functions...like an improved contact list. It would be nice with a shortcut button or something to the alias-function (the nyms). Some more domains for aliases would be nice also.

It would be great with some sort of gadget telling me when I have new e-mail. There are loads of them for other services.

Only major security objection I have against Hushmail is that all mail received and sent unencrypted are stored unencrypted on the server. In my opinion all stored mails should be encrypted and I have it difficult in understanding why Hushmail doesn't do that.

 

I had a Hush Mail account a long long time ago before I had a password manager, so I forgot my phrase lickety split, lol.

Toby are there any upsells that would bring it inline with Gmail's functionality as far as send mail as and POP3 fetching?

 

Hi Carl

The new Hushmail will work much better on your laptop for sure. We've done away with frames and really improved the use of screen space. I use it on my 13" (@1280x800) all the time.

When we first release the new Hushmail to people who signed up for early access (http://www.hushmail.com/contact/preview) it won't have better contact management & more fields yet. We want to get the new interface out the door so we can start getting feedback early. We'll release the improved contacts later, with more fields, easier management, importing (we get a huge number of requests for importing), etc.

I'll make a note of your comments about nyms. We have some ideas too about making the nyms more useful. We can definitely improve this.

I hope you choose to renew & if we don't get all the features out in time for that I hope you come check us out again down the road.

Have a good weekend,

Toby

 

Hi Toby,
thank you for your reply. I've said it many times before, the user interface is crap but together but the encryption functions, the easy mobile access and top notch customer support at a reasonable price have so far been my main reason for being a Hushmail customer but every year the user interface gets older...and there are som improvements that should have been done years ago. I'm glad to see that things will change for the better. May I ask if Hushmails sudden plans of improvements in several areas are the result of a competitive market or that Hushmail fairly recently hired creative people?

 

Hi Dan

We have IMAP & POP3 access but unlike GMail ours is only with a paid subscription. Some people want IMAP or POP3 for use on their mobile device - a free alternative is our mobile website at https://m.hush.com/.

Hope this helps. Have a good weekend,

Toby

 

The nym-functions are very good and therefore they should have their own button on the front page in the mailbox so its easy to access them. It would be nice to be able to assign different names to different nym-addresses when sending mail. It would also be nice to be able to direct mails from different aliases to different mailboxes. Support for tokens would be nice, like the Yubikey. Fastmail.fm does all of that. A lot of users have those demands since it is very common these days to have several different addresses depending on who you communicate with.

The thing, Toby, is that I see that Hushmail has a lot of potential, keep the things that gives Hushmail an edge and look at the competitors for ideas for improvements. Hushmails already have great customer support and user friendliness.

Btw, could you please comment on my opinions regarding the security of stored mails in an unencrypted format in Hushmail?

 

Hey Carl

Thanks for all the comments & suggestions. Soon we'll be working on improvements to our mail server software that could make it easier to PGP encrypt incoming mail that isn't already encrypted. I can understand why you would prefer it that way. On the other hand many people who are using IMAP or POP like to be able to read some of their less private mail without decrypting it. Perhaps we would make it optional though.

Toby

 

Hey guys, I wasn't really sure where I should post this, but since the Hushmail rep (Toby), seems to be answering questions, I have one. I have a free hushmail account and I use Firefox 3.6.9 to access it. Every time I sign in to this account I have problems with pages loading. Once I am totally logged on, I also have the same problems with the pages loading. Example: I am logged on and try to access "preferences" or any other option within the web interface, even the "inbox". I always have the same problem with the pages loading. The error message is this: The connection has timed out The server at mailserver1.hushmail.com is taking too long to respond. The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments. * If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection. * If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web. There is an option to select "try again" when this error message comes up and clicking it will sometimes help in loading the page. Sometimes the same error message just comes back. I have no problems with any other web mail accounts from other providers. I use a cable modem and Firefox, so that shouldn't be an issue. Any ideas as to why the pages don't want to load? Thank you.

 

A belated question for Toby the Hushmail rep: Will the new interface support the option of composing in HTML ?

I thought I'd add the following suggestion while I'm at it: Perhaps Hushmail, as long as it's upgrading and re-vamping aspects of its service, could do something so that even the free level has something like I have at FastMail: I have an account there that allows for the creation of aliases, i.e. addresses with different usernames using any of FM's domains. My username is an alphanumeric, pass-code quality one which I use only for logins. I then use the aliases I've created (which fortunately are not valid for logins, unlike Yahoo's version of aliases which are) for actual email. They can be easily disposed of if abused (by spammers) without losing the account itself.

This would help in the security department, since even free users (who could be given one alias at a time) could have the advantage of keeping their usernames private (known only to them and Hushmail).

 

Hi curvefan,

Can you get in touch with our support team? They can work with you to see if they can figure something out for this. https://www.hushmail.com/contact/

Toby

 

Hi foggy

Yes to HTML composing.

Good idea about the aliases. No plans at the moment to make them available with free accounts too but agree it would be a nice addition

Toby
Hushmail