Dextr For Android Only Shows You Email From People You Care About

Android: Is your inbox so cluttered that you’ve caught yourself missing important messages from people that matter to you? Dextr is a beautiful new email client for Android that wants to change all of that by highlighting the most important messages.

Think of Dextr as a whitelist for your inbox. The app sifts through your mail as it arrives, matches up your messages against your list of “important people”, and displays just those emails. It doesn’t archive or move messages out of your actual Gmail inbox, and it doesn’t filter incoming messages so only the ones from people on your list get through. It’s kind of like a display filter, or a built-in version of Google’s own Priority Inbox. The other messages are still there, you just don’t see them (and have to use another app if you want to).

We played around with Dextr, and it’s definitely good looking and functional, even for a beta. The UI brings your attention to the content of the messages, as opposed to options and buttons and toolbars around the content. viewing attachments is similarly good-looking, and multiple photos display in-line with one another — you don’t have to download them all and open them in an external viewer. Replying and forwarding is just as easy.

Dextr’s approach to whitelisting is a double-edged sword though. Dextr does allow you to respond to, forward to, and email people who aren’t on your VIP list, but it will only show you email from people who are, so if that non-approved person replies, you won’t see it. You can, however, add new people to your VIP list at any time, so if you’re worried you might miss something from your boss, just add them to make sure you see it.

Keeping the list small makes sure every email that lands in Dextr is one you actually want to read and respond to — which can be a real boon for people who get tons of email and want to focus on the important ones without building dozens of filters. At the same time, you’ll definitely find yourself using a traditional client elsewhere (maybe on the desktop, if you stick to Dextr on mobile) to make sure you don’t miss anything worthwhile from someone you haven’t added to your list.

Dextr Email Beta ($0.99) [Google Play via Android Police]