What you need to know
- Edison today launched Edison Mail+, a subscription service for its email app.
- It'll cost you $14.99 for the monthly option, with $99.99 to pay annually.
- The subscription is launching with two anti-phishing features, but Edison says more will be coming later.
As we move into the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more of our communications remain virtual. There's also a lot of emailing going on for people looking for new jobs, looking for grants, or even seeking government assistance, and scammers can take advantage of that to target people who are vulnerable. One of the best Android apps, Edison Mail, today is getting a new tool, Edison Mail+. It's a subscription-based service that you can get via the app store for $14.99 a month, or $99.99 a year. A very steep price if you don't email that much, but one that some may consider being worth it.
Its primary safety features are just two as it stands. The first is Verify Sender. With this, Edison Mail will warn you if an email is coming from a potentially suspicious sender, saying:
Once a potentially fraudulent email is detected, Verify Sender will provide a bright orange warning to you. If this warning is tapped on, Verify Sender will then begin a four-level deep investigation of the email in real-time by scanning over 70 spam databases, checking the validity of the email header, confirming the email address, and seeing if the sender is attempting to spoof someone's identity. You will be able to see these checks as they happen, and will receive confirmation of which specific danger you received in your inbox. With all the risks in the world today, Verify Sender ensures that phishing emails aren't one of them.
The second is dubbed Update Contacts. Edison Mail will also try and keep track of any contacts that are being impersonated. If you're being spear-phished (i.e a phishing attack tailored directly towards you), the service will try and match the details of any emails to your contacts list. If there's a discrepancy, it would be highlighted and the user will either adopt the change or realize that something is wrong.
Edison Mail+ also comes with LinkedIn Discovery. It's essentially what Microsoft ships with Outlook and it attempts to match your contacts with their LinkedIn profiles. Your mileage may vary on how useful this is.
Edison Mail+ is being made available today, and the company says to expect new features over the coming months. It's worth repeating that the $14.99 price is a steep asking price, especially if Gmail or Outlook does the job for you — for free. The company's upcoming features may justify the cost, but it's hard to argue the current feature-set does.
Edison Mail
As far as email apps go, it's a pretty good one. It supports multiple email services and works on every platform. It may be worth holding off on the subscription while more features are being added, however.
