Five years later: Mailplane is still flying
In June 2021, we made the difficult decision to stop selling Mailplane licenses. Changes to Google’s sign-in process had made Mailplane’s future uncertain, and we could no longer responsibly sell a one-time license without knowing how long we would be able to keep the app working.
We ended our announcement with these words:
Hopefully, we can keep it going for a while longer yet.
Five years later, Mailplane 4 is still flying. And we are working on what comes next.
Mailplane 4 works on macOS 27
Apple will make macOS 27 available on September 14. We have tested the current version of Mailplane 4 on macOS 27, and it continues to work in our testing.
On Macs with Apple silicon, Mailplane 4 requires Rosetta. If Rosetta is not installed yet, macOS will offer to install it when you open Mailplane. The installation takes only a few seconds.
macOS 27 automatically offers to install Rosetta when it is needed.
You may also see a warning about the future of Intel-based apps. This does not mean that Mailplane 4 will stop working on macOS 27. The message shown by macOS 27 explicitly says that this version of Mailplane includes a component that will no longer open in macOS 28, the next major release.
Mailplane 4 running on macOS 27. The system notification refers to macOS 28, the next major release.
Existing license holders can therefore continue using Mailplane 4 on macOS 27 after installing Rosetta where required.
Why did we reconsider?
The uncertainty that led to our decision in 2021 has not disappeared entirely. Mailplane still depends on Google allowing its sign-in approach to work, and Google could change that in the future.
But Mailplane 4 is still working more than five years later. Its sign-in approach has proved far more durable than we could responsibly assume in 2021. Just as importantly, many of you have continued to use Mailplane every day, and we have continued to hear how much it matters to you. We are deeply grateful for that loyalty.
That is why we can now confirm that Mailplane 5 is in development. Join our mailing list if you would like to follow its progress.
A new engine for Mailplane
Mailplane 5 is being built on a new engine for both Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
There is still work ahead, and we are not announcing a release date yet. But the new version is real, development is underway, and we look forward to sharing more as it takes shape.
Why a subscription?
The problem with a one-time license is that customers reasonably expect us to keep the app working for at least several years after their purchase. We could no longer make that commitment because we do not know how long Google will allow our approach to continue working. That is why we stopped selling Mailplane licenses in 2021.
A subscription lets us make a simpler and more transparent promise: you pay only for the time you use Mailplane, and we guarantee that it will work for the duration of each paid subscription period. If Mailplane stops working earlier, we will refund the unused portion of that period.
This does not remove our dependency on Google, but it allows us to handle that uncertainty fairly—for our customers and for us.
Stay informed
For now, existing customers can continue using Mailplane 4 on macOS 27. Meanwhile, we are busy preparing Mailplane 5 for takeoff.
Keep me posted about Mailplane 5 →
Thank you for continuing to fly with us.
Lars & Ruben