Why I Choose Email Over Messaging

My colleagues and friends know that I prefer to communicate with them via email rather than chat messaging. There are many benefits in such a choice. You may want to consider them and adopt the same stance.

Unified inbox

My messages arrive in a single program, where I can process and tag them. With messaging programs I’d have to iterate through Teams, Signal, WhatsApp, Slack, Viber, FaceTime, LinkedIn, Messenger, Google Meet, and WebEx to collect and process the messages sent on each platform.

Unified archive

Similarly, if I want to find a past message I have exactly one place to search: my email archive.

Long term availability

Companies get out of business or become acquired and services can easily be discontinued; for a reminder have a look at the 64 services Google has discontinued. If you ever exchanged messages on ICQ, AIM, MSN Messenger, Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Hangouts, GChat, BlackBerry Messenger, or Campfire your messages are now gone. With email and local message storage you control the lifetime of your messages (provided you perform regular backups). My email archive contains the messages I have sent and received from 1986 onward.

Rich functionality

Email clients offer rich functionality. In the Thunderbird email client, I use the following features:

• Folders for categorizing important messages.
• Filters to file messages into folders and to avoid some spam.
• Send-later functionality to manage message flows.
• Tagging messages that require special handling (e.g. pending action, handle at home, or handle at work).
• Address book, with auto-filled salutations in two languages as a custom field.
• Macros to automate the signing and sending of attachments.
• Sorting of messages through various fields (sender, date, topic).
• Sophisticated message search based on arbitrary field contents and their combinations.
• Off-line message processing and composition.

Some messaging systems offer some of these features, but all features are certainly not universally available.

Single interface

Having a single messaging interface allows me to invest in becoming maximally productive in the email client application I’m using. I can learn its features in-depth, I can tailor it with plug-ins, and I can extend it to fit my needs. When using it (many hours a day) my mind and muscles memorize how to perform common actions. With messaging platforms I’d only be able to dabble in each.

Asynchronous communication

Rather than having flow and concentration interrupted by incoming message notifications, with email I can easily decide when to fetch and process messages.

Confidentiality

Depending on the email provider I choose, I can obtain strong guarantees on who reads my email messages. Some, like Proton Mail are explicitly targeting people who want to protect their privacy. In contrast, many messaging platform will scan my messages to send me targeted ads or train their AI systems on them.

Open protocols

Email is transported with open protocols (SMTP, IMAP), which means I can use any email client and operating system I want and obtain any functionality I need, without depending on the business model or whims of the company controlling a proprietary messaging platform. I can even develop my own clients, something I have often done to automate the sending of multi-part email messages to students or conference committee members.

Open storage format

My messages are stored as plain text files in the super-simple Mbox file format, which means I can easily process them with other tools, reliably create backup copies, and move them from one email client to another.

For example, I have a small script that removes all attachments from old email messages, allowing me to keep my email archive in a manageable size. In other cases I’ve run on my message files scripts to analyze the messages I send and receive, and I’ve opened them in my editor to fix hardware-induced corruption.

In short, email can be an amazingly open and reliable environment that fosters exceptional productivity. We shouldn’t settle for anything less.

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