FOLD Documentation
Early access
Reading and organising

Conversations

Optionally group the messages of a thread into one row and read them as a stack of cards; the flat message list remains the default.

Turning conversations on

The message list is flat by default: one row per message. Grouping is optional.

  • Mac: Settings > Appearance > Group by conversation, with the explanation “Group mail on the same topic into one conversation (search stays flat).” The setting is kept and applies to every folder and unified mailbox.
  • iPhone and iPad: the Conversation view button in the toolbar of the message list. The same button, now labelled List view, switches back. This choice is not saved; FOLD starts with the flat list after a relaunch.

Search results are always shown as a flat list, even with conversations turned on. Opening a smart folder or a tag on iPhone and iPad also returns to the flat list, because both are searches.

How FOLD groups messages

FOLD uses the threading algorithm by Jamie Zawinski (JWZ), which works on the message headers:

  1. Each message is identified by its Message-ID.
  2. References and In-Reply-To link every reply to the message it answers.
  3. Messages without usable links are grouped by subject, after prefixes such as Re:, Aw: and Fwd: have been removed.

The result is deterministic: the same messages always produce the same conversations. Grouping is built from the messages of the list you are looking at, a single folder or a unified mailbox. The conversation with the newest message comes first. If the same message appears twice in that list, for example through two accounts, it is counted once.

Reading a conversation

A conversation opens as a stack of cards, one per message. Exactly one card is expanded and shows the full message; at first that is the newest one. Click or tap a collapsed card to expand it, and the previously expanded card collapses.

Reply, forward, flag, move and the other message actions refer to the expanded card, just as in the single-message view.

When you select several conversations for a bulk action, the action applies to all messages they contain. Without a selection, a bulk action refers to the messages of the conversation you are reading.