None of us are perfect, and I am no exception. I have a tragic flaw. Othello had jealousy, Hamlet had inaction, Tim Hickle has disorganization. The only way I’m able to survive my day-to-day is search functionality. Whether it’s my own personal files or my email, I couldn’t survive by folders alone. That’s why I was so excited when I attended the Gusto launch with Verge. Gusto aims to be the the best email tool in the app store. A bold aim indeed. I downloaded the Gusto App immediately upon release to see what it’s all about. Here’s my review of the Gusto email app. All reviews are out of 5 TimmyBux.

User Experience

The user experience on the Gusto app is intuitive. To quote the legendary Patches O’Houlihan: “If you can work an iPhone, you can work the Gusto App.”

Here you can see one of my favorite aspects of the UX. Above, you see my email. I have no idea what Central Indiana Chapter of Anything I belong to, but I don’t want to open the email to find out.

Boom! It’s IU Alumni Association! Delete. (Sorry). In addition to the zoom feature, every single swipe and tap feels natural and the transitions are extremely clean.

Score – 5 TimmyBux

Design

The design on this app is gorgeous without trying too hard. I’m no design expert, but you know it when you see it, and I was extremely impressed with their ability to design an email app that looks like the Gmail app’s hot cousin. That’s about as intelligent of analysis as you’ll get from me on design.

Score – 5 TimmyBux

Functionality

The functionality of the app was a bit of a minefield, so I wanted to break it down into three categories: Search Functionality, Files and Photos, and Bugs.

Search Functionality

This is what puts butts in the seats and it was killer for me. Between the fact that that I’m still an iPhone 4 user and I have maxed out the storage on my device, it can be tough to get an app to run fast for me. No such issues with Gusto. Gusto fetched my mail 2x faster than my Gmail app and 3x faster than the standard mail app. Not only that, but the search results were great. Here I searched for Verge:

In under a second, I had all of my emails, files, and photos on my Gmail related to Verge. Compare this to my go-to Gmail app where that same search would take multiple seconds and would only show me emails, forcing me to dig to find any files.

Score – 5 TimmyBux

Files and Photos

The concept here alone is easily worth 4 TimmyBux, but the execution seals the deal. About 9 times out of 10, when someone asks me to send them a file, the first thing I do is type the file name into my email search. I then re-download it, drag it to my desktop for easy access, and fire it back to them.

Cool story bro.

By easily separating files and photos out of my email, this process has become as simple as a couple of taps. I promise, I’m not trying to sound like a sales pitch, it really is that simple.

Score – 5 TimmyBux

Bugs

Reviewing an app on the day it’s released? You know it can’t be all positive. Here’s a list of the bugs I found and missing features that my first Gusto experience left me yearning for:

• Inability to sync my Outlook, Dropbox, or Google Drive
• Random freezing, usually when trying to switch from email to files
• Inability to grab pictures from my camera roll, could only attach files I’ve already sent or received via email
• Inability to work on iPad. I know that a lot of iPhone-based apps have trouble with this adjustment, but my iPad is the epicenter of my life. I need that functionality BAD!
• Call me crazy, but with how frequently I send colleagues things via text, iMessage integration would be awesome if it were possible

Overall, these bugs and missing ingredients aren’t catastrophic, but they’re the only real reservation I have about this app.

Score – 2 TimmyBux

Overall

Is it the best email app in the world today? No. Will it be? In my mind, yes. Unless the entire Gusto development team drops dead tomorrow, I think this app could be a game changer. Its search functionality and ability to consolidate my perpetually cluttered digital life is going to make it a must have on my iPhone moving forward.

Total Score – 22/25 TimmyBux

For more information on Gusto check out their website or give it a try today.