Features
Your inbox, organized
- Multiple accounts — add all your email accounts and manage them from one app
- Unified inbox — see messages from every account in one view, or focus on one account at a time
- Conversations — related messages are grouped by thread ID and message headers
- Folders — inbox, sent, drafts, archive, trash, and any custom folders — Sparrow auto-detects special folders
- Snooze — temporarily hide a message and have it reappear later. Presets: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, this evening, tomorrow, this weekend, or next week
Writing emails
- Rich text — format your messages with bold, italic, links, and more
- Templates — save email templates with a pre-filled subject and body (plain text or HTML). Templates can be global or per-account
- Drafts — your work is automatically saved as you type, synced to your IMAP Drafts folder
- Attachments — drag and drop files to attach them, with automatic MIME type detection
Finding things
Sparrow's search is fast and powerful — powered by a local Tantivy full-text index:
- Instant results — find messages in milliseconds, not seconds
- Search everywhere — subject lines, message body, sender/recipient names and addresses
- Advanced filters — narrow by date range, attachments, read/unread, starred, or specific account
- Works offline — the entire search index lives on your computer
See Search for the full query syntax.
Keeping your mail private
- Built-in encryption — send and receive encrypted emails (PGP and S/MIME) without installing plugins
- No tracking — Sparrow doesn't collect any usage data or analytics
- Image blocking — remote images (often used for tracking) are blocked by default
- Secure connections — all communication with email servers uses TLS encryption
See Encryption for details on PGP and S/MIME.
Automating the routine
Set up rules to handle incoming mail automatically. Each rule has conditions and actions:
Conditions — match on From, To, Subject, or Body using:
- Contains, Equals, Starts with, Ends with, or Regex
Actions:
- Move to a folder
- Apply a label
- Mark as read
- Star the message
- Delete
- Set contact priority (Normal, VIP, or Low)
Rules can be global or per-account, and you can set a "stop processing" flag to prevent later rules from firing. Rules are evaluated in your chosen order.
Contacts and VIP
- Contact book — Sparrow maintains contacts with name, email, and avatar
- VIP contacts — mark important people as VIP to get priority treatment
- VIP-only notifications — limit desktop notifications to VIP senders only
- Autocomplete — start typing a name or email in the compose window and Sparrow suggests matches
- Avatars — from your contacts, Gravatar, BIMI, or auto-generated initials
Statistics
Sparrow includes a built-in stats dashboard:
- Overview — total messages, storage used, attachment count and size
- Top senders — who emails you the most, sorted by count or size
- Top domains — which domains dominate your inbox
- Volume over time — inbox/sent/other counts by day, week, or month (3m, 6m, 12m, all time)
- Size distribution — how many emails fall in each size bracket
- Attachment types — breakdown by category (images, PDFs, archives, documents, etc.)
- Largest messages and attachments — find what's taking up space
All stats are computed locally from your database — nothing is sent anywhere.
Keyboard shortcuts
Navigate Sparrow without touching the mouse:
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
j / ↓ | Next email |
k / ↑ | Previous email |
c | Compose new email |
r | Reply |
a | Reply all |
f | Forward |
s | Toggle star |
/ | Focus search |
Delete | Move to trash |
? | Show shortcut help |
Escape | Back / close / clear search |
Shortcuts are disabled when you're typing in a text field.
Smart inbox features
- Inbox Shield — automatically classifies incoming mail into Personal, Newsletter, Marketing, and Transactional categories. Toggle between "all mail" and "personal only" view. Run a full-inbox scan to classify existing messages. Customize keywords to improve detection
- Bulk actions — select multiple emails with checkboxes. Shift-click for ranges. Available actions: mark as read/unread, star, move to folder, archive, delete
- Unsubscribe & block — one-click unsubscribe from newsletters (uses List-Unsubscribe header). Block senders to automatically move their future emails to trash
Compose features
- Send Later — click the arrow next to Send to schedule delivery at a specific date and time. Scheduled emails appear in the Send Later view and are sent automatically
- Undo Send — after clicking Send, a notification appears and the email is held for a configurable delay (default: 10 seconds). Click Undo to cancel and reopen the message in the composer
- Multiple signatures — create multiple named signatures per account (formal, informal, multilingual). Set different defaults for new messages and replies. Switch signatures in the composer with one click
- Email tracking — when enabled, Sparrow injects a tracking pixel and rewrites links so you can see when recipients open your email. Requires a tracking server URL (configured in Settings)
Speed Reader
Press v on any message to open Speed Reader. Words are displayed one at a time at your configured reading speed (default: 250 WPM). Adjust speed with the slider. Uses Optimal Recognition Point (ORP) alignment for comfortable reading.
AI Assistant
Click the AI icon in the compose toolbar to open the assistant panel. Available actions:
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Write for me | Describe what you want to say — AI drafts the full message |
| Improve | AI corrects grammar, style, and clarity |
| Translate | Translate your message to another language |
Supported providers: OpenAI, Anthropic, and local Ollama (no internet required). Configure your API key in Settings > AI.
Calendar
Enable the calendar in Settings > Calendar. Sparrow connects to CalDAV servers (including Google Calendar and iCloud Calendar). View your events in the Calendar section of the sidebar alongside your email.
SMSAPI
The optional SMSAPI plugin adds SMS sending directly from Sparrow. Enable it in Settings > SMSAPI and enter your SMSAPI.com API key. Features: compose SMS, manage contact groups, SMS templates with placeholders, and message history.
Desktop integration
- System tray — Sparrow sits quietly in your taskbar
- Notifications — get alerted when new mail arrives (optionally VIP only)
- Start on login — Sparrow opens automatically when you turn on your computer
- Close to tray — close the window without quitting
Customization
- 8 color themes — Ocean, Sparrow, Forest, Lavender, Sunset, Rose, Slate, Midnight
- Light / Dark / System — choose a mode or follow your OS setting
- Language — English, Polish, German, French, Spanish, Italian