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How to automatically clean your email from newsletters, unwanted emails and junk
Is your email inbox full of unwanted spam or newsletter emails that you just don't have the energy or will to delete and unsubscribe to? Then you are like most other people.
It is quite common to have an inbox with over 5.000 emails from people you don't know or maybe even unwanted spam emails that you haven't signed up for. But what if I told you that there is an app that can make all of these go away automatically?
In this article, we will talk about what Cleanfox is, and how it can help you get rid of your unwanted emails without you having to do anything. Removing unwanted e-mails gives you a better overview of your inbox and it helps to lower the pollution caused by your email inbox.
Hang tight and let's get started!
What is Cleanfox?
Cleanfox is an iOS and Android-compatible app founded by Edouard Nattée in 2016 and its purpose is to help you automatically remove unwanted and spammy emails from your cluttered inbox.
Most people have inboxes containing 5.000-10.000 unread or spammy emails that we don't need, and it is in this case that Cleanfox is useful. It automatically moves unwanted emails to the trash bin so that you don't have to think about them.
We have tested the app
For a month I have been testing out Cleanfox for iOS to see if the app actually helped me clean out some of the old and unwanted emails from my Gmail account, and I must say that it did what it was supposed to do.
Over the years I have seen different services that promised to unsubscribe different newsletters for you, but none of them really did it effectively. It seemed like some emails always slipped through which forced me to sit and manually delete emails anyway.
With Cleanfox it was a different story. When I launched the app for the first time, I was asked to add my email, and right away it started to analyze my inbox. I had been cleaning it not so long ago, so I only had about 1.500 unnecessary emails. It took the app a few minutes to analyze my inbox, and the ones that it was sure about it deleted right away.
In the stack of emails, it found a few that it didn't recognize and therefore asked me what to do with them. I gave it quick and easy instructions that it should be able to use for similar emails in the future.
Cleanfox does not run all the time but checks your email sometimes. This means it is still possible to receive spam and unwanted emails, but rest assured that they will be deleted. Overall I think the app is fantastic, and it certainly removed a time-consuming task so I can spend my time more wisely.
How does Cleanfox automatically clean my inbox?
Cleanfox automatically downloads and analyzes your emails so that it can make a decision about whether the individual email is spam, unwanted or regular.
It runs its sequence in the background once in a while because running in constantly would drain your battery. You won't feel any noticeable battery drainage while having the app installed.
Once you have installed the app on your device and Cleanfox has analyzed your inbox, it will let you sort your emails so it knows what to do with them in the future. It will prompt you with 3 choices.
- Green (Keep)
- Yellow (Delete email(s))
- Red (Automatically delete future emails)
The green one is telling Cleanfox to keep the emails in your inbox, and the yellow is telling it to delete all emails from the same sender, but not automatically delete them. The last option (red) allows you to automatically delete all future emails from a sender.
Is it secure/safe?
Cleanfox is connecting to your email account by using 2-factor authentication. They are doing it so that you don't have to share your password directly with them, which increases the security of your account.
According to Cleanfox's FAQ, it downloads your emails and analyzes them by using an algorithm. The algorithm will only care about and save a little information about newsletters and order confirmations, but nothing personal. Their FAQ and privacy policy state that Cleanfox never has, is not, and will never sell personal information to 3rd parties.
Cleanfoxes FAQ and policy also state that all personal/private emails are completely excluded and not accessible by their system because their algorithm is trained to look for email domains associated with order confirmations and newsletters.
You can read Cleanfox's policy here.
Add multiple emails to clean
With Cleanfox you can add multiple email addresses at the same time to keep track of all of your inboxes at once. The slick design makes it easy to add your private email, work email, and more.
Adding emails such as Gmail, Yahoo and AOL are easy, and when adding business emails you will be asked to provide the necessary SMTP information.
The Cleanfox app has no limited use and therefore allows you to add unlimited emails to your account.
Does it really lower the carbon footprint?
Yes, no doubt that it lowers your carbon footprint when you remove cluttering emails from your inbox. A single email can emit between 0,03g and 26g of CO2 (Carbon Dioxide). It might not sound like much, but if you have 5.000-10.000 of these emails in your inbox the numbers add up.
When you have many emails laying around in your inbox they will still cause pollution. Every time you reload your inbox a database will send new data to your browser. The more data that is being processed and sent, the more energy it requires which equals more pollution.
Since the beginning of Cleanfox, they have managed to clean out several hundred million emails and saved the world from many tons of CO2 being emitted.
Interesting statistics & How to refer friends
If you are interested in seeing how many emails Cleanfox has cleared from your inbox or maybe how many KG of CO2 you have saved, then the app has its own statistics page. This page allows you to follow your contribution to the environment and also get an insight into certain facts like: How many KG of CO2 your recent internet orders have emitted.
Whether the facts are correct or simply just an average guess I don't know, but seeing progress and knowing that you are doing something good for the environment is amazing.
If you want to do something extra for the environment and help out for friends and family, then you can refer them by using your own referral code. When you do so, you automatically plant 1 square meter of forest together with an organization.
Conclusion
After trying out Cleanfox for a month, I gotta admit that it feels nice to have a clean and clutter-free inbox. Doing something good for the environment without spending lots of time on it is also amazing, and I can definitely recommend the app to those that are interested.
If you are interested in getting the app yourself, you are welcome to use my referral code to help me plant more square meters of forest.
Referral code: 4D693AB27C
If you have tried Cleanfox yourself we would like to hear your story in the comments section. Please feel free to share your experience and help inspire others to find useful tools to do something good for the environment.
Author
Michael Andersen
I am a self-taught and highly passionate web developer currently living in Sweden, where I use my skills to make the internet a better place through ethical and sustainable web design.
Michael Andersen
I am a self-taught and highly passionate web developer currently living in Sweden, where I use my skills to make the internet a better place through ethical and sustainable web design.
