It has been around for a few decades now. And for many people, it still remains one of the most important reasons for accessing the Internet. Indeed, for several people, it is the Internet—email. That said, there has not been much change in email in general— fonts might have got makeovers and interfaces are a bit more minimalist, but by and large, if you used email in the ‘90s, you know there hasn’t been a sea change in the area. In some ways, email has been the holy cow, an integral part of tech life that no one wants to disturb, fearing that the unfamiliar would alienate people.

There are, however, signs that winds of change might soon hit this integral part of our lives, thanks to a number of apps that have thrown an interesting spin on what had until now been a largely uniform email experience. No, we do not expect them to overturn the standard email experience just yet, but they are harbingers of what email could become, and are definitely worth a try if you want to break away from the usual email routine.