4,812
The badge you stopped seeing
The number got so big it turned into wallpaper. Every time you notice it, there's a small jolt of dread, and then you look away.
A Mac app for Gmail
Inbox Zero
for the ADHD mind.
You don't avoid email because you're lazy. You avoid it because a few thousand tiny decisions is a miserable job. Unpile turns them into a handful of big ones: one click per sender, not per email.
- Set up in about a minute
- Gmail & Google Workspace
- Can't send. Can't delete.
Sound familiar?
👀 → ✓
Opened it, lost it
You peeked at something important, the app marked it read, and it sank without a trace. Now looking feels risky too.
“Sunday.”
I'll set up filters this weekend
Filters live four menus deep, need a form per sender, and only work on new mail. So the weekend comes and goes.
It's not you. Mail apps are built to handle one email at a time, and your inbox isn't a list of emails. It's a list of senders.
From download to cleaning
About a minute to set up.
One sitting to Inbox Zero.
-
1
Open the app
Signed and notarized by Apple. No installer, no account to create, no settings to fill in first.
-
2
Sign in with Google
Your browser opens, you approve two permissions, you're back. Your mail shows up straight away.
-
3
Click a sender, clear them all
Every message shows how many unread you have from that sender. One click clears the lot. Then the next sender.
The first few senders usually account for most of the pile. That's where the dopamine is.
One sender, one click
Clear 29 emails as easily as one.
Open any message and Unpile tells you exactly how many unread you have from that sender, in every folder. Mark 29 as Read does what it says. Switch to "anyone at linkedin.com" to sweep a whole company.
- An exact count, never Gmail's rough estimate
- Every change can be undone, down to the message
- Opening a message doesn't mark it read, so looking is free
Review mode
Not sure? Look at just that sender.
Some senders mix noise with the occasional thing you need. Review shows only their unread mail, across every folder. Tick the ones that can go, keep the rest.
- ⌘A selects them all, ⇧⌘U marks them read
- Nothing jumps around while you work
Organize for good
Deal with a sender once. Never again.
Put everything from a sender in a label, mark it read, take it out of your inbox, and tell Gmail to keep doing that for new mail. One sheet, one Apply.
- Creates a real Gmail filter that works on your phone too
- Applies to the mail you already have, not just new mail
- Running it twice never creates duplicate filters
Quick Actions
Your own buttons for your own piles.
Make a Marketing button that files promos away, a Receipts button, an Updates button. Each gets a color and a slot in the toolbar. Press ⌃1 and that sender is handled, now and from now on.
- Labels are created on first use, never twice
- Not everything is spam: a real Junk button sits next to them for the stuff that is
Momentum, not waiting
Five things at once. Every one undoable.
Hit Junk on one sender, a Quick Action on the next, Mark All as Read on a third, without waiting for anything to finish. Each shows its own progress and ends with its own Undo.
- Undo puts back exactly what changed: read state, labels, inbox, filters
- Buttons never lock up while something runs
Filters, finally manageable
Change your mind in bulk.
Filed fifteen senders under "Updates" and now want them in "Marketing"? Tick the group, pick the new label, done. The mail those filters already filed moves too, and your Quick Action follows.
- Filters grouped by the label they fill
- Edit, delete, or run any filter on the mail you already have
Fast enough to keep up with you
No spinners between you and the next sender.
Unpile keeps a local copy of the mail you've seen, so lists appear instantly and arrow keys feel like arrow keys. You choose how much space it uses, and it never stores attachments.
- Stays in sync with changes you make on your phone or in Gmail
- Native Mac app, not a web page in a box
Designed around how your brain actually works
Less deciding. More done.
Big decisions, not tiny ones
"This sender? Gone." beats "this email, this email, this email…" ten thousand times.
Looking is free
Reading never changes anything. No more losing an email because you glanced at it.
Nothing is scary
Every action has an Undo, and nothing is ever deleted. Click with confidence.
Instant feedback
The count drops, the toast pops, the next sender is right there. Momentum does the rest.
Keyboard first
⇧⌘R clears a sender, ⌃1–9 run your buttons, ⇧⌘J junks. Hands never leave the keys.
Two minutes counts
No setup project, no system to maintain. Clear three senders while the kettle boils.
Why the usual tools leave you stuck
Gmail and Apple Mail can do some of this.
They just make it a chore.
| What you're trying to do | Gmail (web) | Apple Mail | Unpile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear everything from one sender | Search from:, select all, "select all conversations that match", mark read |
Search, select all, mark read; only mail already on your Mac | One click on any of their emails |
| Know how many unread a sender has | Not shown | Not shown | Exact count on every message |
| Glance at an email without losing it | Opening marks it read (reading-pane setting can change it) | Viewing marks it read | Never marks read unless you ask |
| Handle a sender's future mail too | Filter form per sender, tucked in the search options | Rules run on this Mac only, and only while Mail is open | Same click creates a real Gmail filter |
| Your own one-click "Marketing" button | No | No | Quick Actions with colors and ⌃1–9 |
| Move a dozen filters to another label | Edit them one at a time | Not applicable to Gmail filters | Tick, pick, done. The mail moves too |
| Junk everything a sender ever sent | Report spam per selection, or block for future mail | Select and move to Junk | One click, all past mail, exact address only |
| Undo a big cleanup | A few seconds, for some actions | Undo the last action | Every action, restored exactly, several at once |
Based on Gmail on the web and Mail on macOS with a Gmail account, as of 2026.
Safe to hand to a frantic brain
It can't send.
It can't delete.
Clicking fast should never cost you anything. Unpile simply has no way to send an email, write a draft, move mail to Trash or delete it. Not a setting, not a confirmation dialog: the code isn't there.
- No servers. The app talks straight to Google. Your mail never passes through anyone else.
- Your sign-in stays in the Mac Keychain. Sign out and access is revoked at Google.
- Junk is the only door to Spam, and it always targets one exact address, never a whole domain.
- The local copy is yours. Message text only, never attachments, deleted when you sign out.
- Signed and notarized by Apple, sandboxed like an App Store app.
Questions
Which email accounts does it work with?
Gmail and Google Workspace accounts today. You can add several and switch between them from the sidebar. Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo and others are next in line, in order of demand: tell us which one you use when you join the beta.
Google's sign-in screen says "read, compose and send". Why?
That's Google's fixed wording for the permission that allows marking mail as read and changing labels. There is no narrower permission that can do that. Unpile itself contains no code for sending or deleting; the only Gmail actions it can perform are listed in its source.
Do I need to keep the app open for filters to work?
No. Unpile creates ordinary Gmail filters, so Gmail applies them to new mail on its own: on the web, on your phone, everywhere.
What if I click the wrong thing?
Press Undo on the notification. It puts back exactly what changed: which messages were unread, which were in the inbox, which labels were added, and any filter that was created.
Does it delete anything?
Never. The Junk button moves mail to Gmail's Spam folder, which Gmail itself empties after 30 days, the same as when you mark spam in Gmail. Everything else only changes labels and read state.
What does it need?
A Mac running macOS 14 Sonoma or later, and a Google account.
Private beta · macOS 14 or later
Your inbox has waited long enough.
It's a ten-minute job now.
Unpile is in a small private beta. Tell us a little about your pile and we'll send you an invite.
Request an invite
Takes about a minute · Free during the beta