Newton email app gets revived again, as does its expensive price tag

The Newton email app has had quite a rocky history. First, it started as CloudMagic and earned rave reviews and a devoted following. CloudMagic then became Newton and went the full premium route, charging quite a lot for what is essentially just a way to check your email.

That premium strategy didn’t work out so well, as a huge swath of users jumped ship to other apps to avoid paying. Shortly after, Newton folded. Then, out of nowhere, Essential came along and bought it up, keeping pretty much everything the same as it had been. Unfortunately, Essential then closed up shop, too, killing off Newton once again.

Today, though, a new team takes over the Newton email app, making it possibly the most resilient app ever. The new team is keeping that premium pricing (ugh) but also promising a swath of new changes that will make Newton better overall and prevent it from going anywhere ever again.

What’s new with Newton email?

You can read the very long and detailed Medium blog post from the new Newton email team here. In it, the new team leads — Justin Mitchell and Maitrik Kataria — describe what’s going to change about Newton and what’s going to remain the same. We’ve summarized the big announcements below:

• The Newton email app is going to become open source which will prevent it from ever going away again.
• The old pricing — $50 per year — is staying the same.
• Support for Newton will be far better than it’s ever been, with both new team leads offering up their personal email addresses for you to use for getting help.
• New features are on the way, including a dark mode. First, though, the team is going to give a thorough cleaning to the current code, which is apparently a mess.
• There will be major privacy and security changes to the Newton email app, including making it compliant with the GDPR.

As a show of good faith, people who previously paid for Newton can get some discounts on the “new” Newton. Here’s how that breaks down:

• All existing subscribers get three additional months added to their plan for free.
• Past subscribers can get a 20% discount on a new subscription.
• Referral discounts can earn your friends and family 20% off and net you an additional free three months.

The above discounts and offers are only valid through the end of this month. If you’re interested in revisiting the Newton email app, check it out on the Google Play Store by clicking the button below.