Notion Mail: Is It Any Good?

Review and verdict

May 19, 2025

Notion has slowly but surely turned into a productivity super monster. That’s cool, but also a little concerning. I wrote about that recently.

What started as a place to keep notes and to-do lists now functions as a second brain, project management tool, third calendar, and now, a full-blown email client.

Notion Mail.

Spoiler alert: It’s… promising. But don’t switch just yet.

Why Notion Mail?

Notion Mail is essentially a Gmail wrapper with Notion’s familiar aesthetic and, crucially, its philosophy: if you can imagine it, you can build it.

It only works with Google accounts for now. If you’re hoping to manage your iCloud inbox (like me), you’re out of luck. Outlook support is allegedly on the roadmap.

The real hook of Notion Mail is its Smart Views, which function like Notion’s databases: you can filter, sort, group, and label your emails by any metadata you define.

Want a view that only shows emails from clients, grouped by urgency, with a custom status field and a “notes” column? Go wild.

This is sort of a structural rethinking of how email works. And it’s surprisingly good.

Also, the design is much to my liking. Simple, minimal, and easy to understand. It reminds me of Tempo, a now defunct Mac and iOS email app for Gmail that was stunning.

What Works

1. Views That Don’t Suck

Traditional email apps let you switch between things like “inbox,” “sent,” “starred,” and maybe throw in a tab or two for categories you’ll never open.

Notion Mail says, “Nope. Let’s give you Views you can build yourself.”

You want a “Travel” view that only shows Booking.com and Airbnb emails, sorted by date and color-coded by itinerary status? Done.

A “Feedback” view that filters by subject line, groups by sender domain, and adds a field for personal notes? Easy.

This level of email customization is pretty neat. But before long, you’ll be three layers deep into a filtered view titled “Emails With Attachments From People I Don’t Like But Can’t Ignore.”

Complexity vs. simplicity.

2. Notion Integration

If you’re already living in Notion, the ability to reference pages, drop in links to databases, and use slash commands to format your emails feels natural.

No more copying and pasting Notion URLs or dragging people into shared workspaces just to get them to read the meeting notes.

You can reference pages, format with headers, bullets, and toggles (because, of course, toggles), and create templates for email responses.

If Notion is your jam, Notion Mail is a natural extension.

3. Snippets and AI

There’s a built-in snippets feature for saving your most-used replies. Think of it like canned responses, but Notion-ified.

And since this is 2025, AI is here too. Automatically labeling, writing, and rewriting your emails. That’s paid though.

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What Needs Work

1. Google-Only Club

For now, Notion Mail only supports Gmail and Google Workspace.

Outlook users, ProtonMail fans, and iCloud pros are on the waitlist (probably for a while).

Multiple account support is limited — you can add multiple accounts, but switching between them feels like switching between separate Notion workspaces, not a seamless unified inbox.

In 2025, that’s a serious limitation.

2. Mobile

There’s no mobile app yet. No iOS. No Android.

This might be forgivable in beta software, but Notion isn’t new to shipping tools. Not having a phone-friendly version of your email app is not great.

But the iOS app is coming soon. At least, Notion says so on the Notion Mail website.

3. No Encryption, Fewer Privacy Features

Notion Mail is just Gmail with Notion’s furniture. It's not the greatest in terms of privacy, encryption, and data security.

Security is now entirely dependent on Google’s infrastructure. For casual users, that’s probably fine. For privacy-conscious users or companies that deal in sensitive information, it’s…not great.

That might change if Notion decides to support more privacy-focused email providers in the future. But that’s a BIG if.

The Setup Process

You sign in with Gmail, go through a quick onboarding flow, and you’re pretty much done.

You can:

Add filters by sender, keyword, or attachment type
Group emails by any custom property
Apply AI labels based on urgency, sentiment, or specific triggers like “Action Required”
And of course, manually create statuses like “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done” to track campaigns, leads, or inbox chaos

It’s minimally but well-designed app that works flawlessly with Gmail’s architecture and Notion’s capabilities.

The Bigger Picture

Notion Mail isn’t trying to be a better Gmail. And it shouldn’t be.

It’s trying to be a better system for handling what email represents: a stream of commitments, conversations, and decisions.

That’s powerful — but also incredibly specific. And for many people probably already too complex.

If you’re someone who lives in Notion, you’ll likely find yourself liking it. The integration is tight, the workflows are smart, and the customization feels almost limitless.

But if you’re not deep into Notion already, this isn’t the mail app for you. The learning curve is steeper than it looks, and you can just stick to Gmail or Outlook.

The Bottom Line

Let’s break it down.

Use Notion Mail if:

You already use Notion for everything.
You crave ultra-custom inbox views.
You don’t mind it being Google-only (for now).
You’re desktop-based and prefer working from your laptop or iMac.
You like the idea of email as a structured, filtered workflow instead of a chronological nightmare.

Avoid Notion Mail if:

You need mobile access to email.
You use Outlook or multiple accounts.
You need encrypted email or better privacy.
You want an out-of-the-box solution, not a DIY inbox puzzle.

TL;DR

Notion Mail isn’t a revolution. But it’s more than a gimmick.

It rethinks email in a fresh, database-powered way that’s truly unique. It’s raw, unfinished, and missing some basics — but it also has more long-term potential than almost anything else in the productivity world right now.

Just don’t expect it to replace Gmail on your phone tomorrow. Or next week. Or until they release a mobile app sometime in the next geologic era.