emailThe email59 app
Most of a mail app isn't the mail: who's building the other parts of the email59 app
We're making a mail app. It reads the inboxes you already have (Zoho Mail, Amazon WorkMail, Outlook, an email59 mailbox) and shows them as one feed on your phone, Android first. Before the first email shows up on a screen, though, an app needs a sign-in, a way to get built and installed on test phones, and a handful of web pages that Google Play insists on. None of that is the mail part. So we didn't build it ourselves.
Here is who does what, with the real pages, and the parts that still need a person.
The split, in one table
| Job | Who does it | What we would have built otherwise |
|---|---|---|
| Writing and testing the code | Claude Code, Anthropic's coding agent | Nothing skipped: the code still gets written, reviewed and tested; it goes faster |
| Signing in | osec.one Auth: email code, Google, Apple | Code emails, code limits per address and per IP, Google and Apple sign-in setup |
| Android builds and test installs | aipps.dev | A build machine with the Android tools, signing, and an install page testers can open |
| Store pages | AppBro | Home, privacy policy, terms, support and delete-account pages, on HTTPS |
The code: Claude Code, in short steps
The app and its server are written with Claude Code, working from a written plan. The plan is cut into steps of about ten minutes, and a step only counts as done when it is tested, committed and pushed. That sounds fussy. It is the reason the work can be stopped and picked up again without anyone having to remember where it was.
The first step wasn't code at all. It was reading what the three providers actually allow, because a mail app that promises "works with your inbox" had better be right about that. A few things it turned up:
- Amazon WorkMail is closing. AWS stopped taking new WorkMail customers on 30 April 2026 and the service ends on 31 March 2027. The app will still read a WorkMail inbox, with a clear notice, and help people move.
- Outlook.com and Microsoft 365 no longer accept a plain password for IMAP and SMTP. Signing in goes through Microsoft's own sign-in page.
- Zoho Mail's IMAP tells a client about new mail as it arrives, so a read or a delete on the laptop can show on the phone within seconds rather than at the next check.
What still needs a person: deciding what the app is for, approving the screens before any of them are coded, the store and developer accounts, keys, and saying yes to each release. The agent writes a lot of code quickly. It doesn't get to decide what ships.
Sign-in: osec.one
The email59 app signs you in the same way email59.com does: type your address, get a code, done. That comes from osec.one Auth. It sends the codes, limits how many codes one address or one IP can ask for in an hour, limits wrong guesses, and adds Google and Apple sign-in without us setting up OAuth with either of them.
The part that matters most for a mail app: there is no email59 password to leak. The app has no password of its own, so there is nothing to spray or reuse from another site's breach.
Builds and test installs: aipps.dev
A mobile app has to be built into something a phone can install, and that needs a machine with the Android tools on it, signing keys, and somewhere to put the result. aipps.dev does that from the project folder:
npm i -g aipps
aipps login
aipps init
aipps build -p android # ends with an install page and a QR codeA tester points the phone's camera at the QR code and installs the build. For Android no store account is needed for that. The project's secrets (the .env file and keys) are never uploaded. Store uploads, iPhone test devices and over-the-air updates are on aipps.dev's list as "coming"; we'll use them as they arrive.
Store pages: AppBro
Google Play asks every app for a privacy policy at a public address, and any app that lets people make an account must also give a web page where they can ask for the account to be deleted. Apple asks for a privacy policy and a support link. AppBro drafts those from one form: a home page, privacy policy, terms, support and delete-account pages, at yourapp.b59.link or on your own domain with HTTPS. The email59 app's store pages come from there.
The full list of what Play wants before it lists a new app, with dates, is in Google Play won't list a new app until these seven things exist.
What it adds up to
Four jobs, three of them handed to tools that already do them well. What's left for us is the part people will actually notice: a feed that's quick, unread counts that are right, an urgent email that taps you on the shoulder, and a swipe that deletes on the server and not only on the phone. That is where the time goes.
Full disclosure: osec.one and AppBro are, like email59, run by Biz59 LLC, and aipps.dev is a partner. We use them because they fit, and we'd say so if they didn't.
Join the email59 app waitlist We start with Android; iPhone comes next. One email when it's ready to install, nothing else.
Sources: AWS WorkMail end-of-support notice (new customers closed 30 April 2026, service ends 31 March 2027); Microsoft on basic authentication for Exchange Online and Outlook.com; Zoho Mail IMAP documentation; Google Play Console Help "Understanding Google Play's app account deletion requirements"; the osec.one, aipps.dev and AppBro sites as of 25 October 2026 (screenshots taken that day).
Claude Code is a product of Anthropic. Zoho Mail, Amazon WorkMail, Outlook, Microsoft 365, Google Play and Apple are trademarks of their owners. email59 is not affiliated with Anthropic, Zoho, Amazon, Microsoft, Google or Apple.