Basecamp debuts Hey, an email service for $99/year that tries to reimagine email, blocks tracking pixels, but needs its own client and can't import old email
Basecamp is entering consumer software with its CEO having already framed platform gatekeeping as extortion — he called Google's brand-keyword ads a shakedown a year before launch. That history frames Hey's design choices: $99/year instead of ads, tracking pixels blocked, and a proprietary client rather than IMAP compatibility.
First-order effects
Users who sign up get a privacy-first inbox but face a hard switch: no importing old email and no existing mail client support means Hey only works for people willing to run their email entirely inside Basecamp's app.
Within a day of launch, Basecamp says Apple rejected Hey's next iOS update because the subscription wasn't sold through Apple's billing (the rejection came almost immediately after debut), putting the service's iPhone availability at risk right out of the gate.
Second-order effects
Apple's appeal rejection forces a choice on Basecamp between paying the App Store cut, rebuilding Hey as an IMAP/POP client, or leaving iOS — a decision other subscription-first developers are watching as a test case (Apple argued email apps must work without a paid subscription).
The standoff hands ammunition to the broader developer backlash over App Store commissions, giving critics like Basecamp a concrete, high-profile grievance rather than an abstract one.
Third-order effects
If paid, privacy-positioned services keep colliding with platform tolls, the fight shifts from whether consumers will pay for email to who controls distribution on mobile — pushing regulators and developers toward questioning app-store billing mandates.
Hey's refusal to interoperate (no import, no standard clients) tests whether a walled-garden email product can survive against free incumbents, a signal for how paid alternatives to ad-funded communication tools fare generally.
The trend: Consumer software is splitting into ad-funded defaults and paid privacy products, with app-store gatekeepers becoming the decisive chokepoint for which model reaches phones.
Tons of great ideas here. There is *so much* low hanging fruit even in huge, extremely mature software sectors. The world is parched for clear and original product thinking coupled with effective execution. https://twitter.com/...
Here's an email hack: Ignore your inbox, let it pile up, and never respond to any email. Yes, you miss out on some stuff, but the greater stress relief and time back is so worth it (talking personal email here) https://www.theverge.com/...
I heard that Hey doesn't support standard email protocols and is not file format compatible with GMail. Is this true? What is their protocol like? How do you get your data out if you decide to switch? Can you? https://www.protocol.com/... PS: If I were to compete I'd go for Heh.
“The Basecamp cofounder David Heinemeier Hansson has become increasingly outspoken about Big Tech's privacy violations and monopolistic tendencies. Now he's inviting you to join the cause—by switching your email provider” ✌️❤️ https://www.fastcompany.com/ ...
I spent the weekend using Hey, which is the most interesting thing to happen to email in a long time. I wrote about it, and why @dhh and @jasonfried decided to take on the insane task of trying to beat Gmail https://www.protocol.com/...
I just got an early demo of Hey ( https://hey.com/) from @jasonfried. I can confirm this will be my new default email over Gmail...it's a beautiful rethinking of everything wrong with email. I can't wait for you all to play with it soon.
Happy to say that https://hey.com/ is every bit as clever as I expected, a radical rethinking of email and dramatically better in a dozen ways. (And because it's by the @basecamp team, I know it won't get swallowed up by BigTechCo a month after launch.)
You guys. https://hey.com/ is a game changer for email and owning your time. A big part of my work is diving into new teams and email gets flooded quickly. @jasonfried, @dhh and their team are changing the foundation for my work and it's amazing. I'm only on day three!
I had an editor who wanted me to call or text when I enailed, since he was trying to quit email. I guess it's better than the editors you have to email and text for one-sentence responses that tell you nothing, but still a lot of extra work for everyone else. https://twitter.com/…
In positive news, https://hey.com/ seems to have finally solved email (!!!). Been using it several weeks and no longer dealing with spam, long lists of “unread” messages, or sorting out annoying but important docs. The relief is so real 🙌🏼
https://hey.com/ is the most exciting app I've used in years. A complete rethinking of email, full of bold, brilliant ideas. Highly recommended. Not only for the product itself, but because its boldness will inspire you to question your assumptions and think differently.
Just logged into my new https://hey.com/ email and love how elegant, intuitive and intentional the platform is. Definitely retiring my gmail account. @jasonfried, can you guys rethink social media next?
Just got a walkthrough of https://hey.com/ from @jasonfried and am beginning to test using live email. If you designed email from scratch such that it vigorously protected your privacy and your time, this is what it would look like. I think you're going to love it. 🏆
one day people will stop trying to “fix” email and will just admit that it's a thing that exists and you can engage with it or not https://twitter.com/...
Even as others have tried to make inboxes smarter or easier to manage, the team at Basecamp reckons that nobody's really tried to rebuild email, to bring it back to what made it great in the first place. That's what Hey attempts to do. https://www.protocol.com/...
It's why the service is full of new, different, occasionally middle-finger-y twists on the way email works. “You can't just go, ‘excuse me, good sir, um, I have some objections,’” @dhh said. “No, you gotta blow up some railroads.” https://www.protocol.com/...
“You can't just go, 'excuse me, good sir, um, I have some objections. No, you gotta blow up some railroads. You gotta sabotage some systems. You gotta come out swinging.” https://www.protocol.com/...
“If the current trend continues, email could effectively become another in a long list of Google messaging apps... Gmail's product manager, told me in 2017 that Gmail was already powerful enough to be able to set standards in a supposedly open ecosystem” https://www.protocol.com/…