Email and calendar, one key at a time.
My Gmail and Google Calendar in one app. The mail that needs me comes first, the rest reads like a morning paper, and every action has a key.
Private. On my Mac and iPhone.
I wanted email that was fast and ran from the keyboard. I didn’t want inbox zero. I wanted to act on what mattered and scroll past the rest.
Kite is my Gmail and Google Calendar in one app, on my Mac and my iPhone. Email from a person who needs something from me sits at the top until I read it. Newsletters and updates wait below, each with a one-line summary, so I can skim them or skip them.
It borrows ideas from apps I like, such as Superhuman’s keys and Notion Calendar’s week. Then it adds its own: a morning paper, a calendar that knows what an email is about, and AI only where it helps.
The mail that needs you rises to the top. The rest you can scroll past.
The Brief lays out the last day of mail like a newspaper. The date is the headline, and a short note sums up the day. Important mail runs down the left, the best newsletter is the lead story, and what’s coming up sits on the right.
Catching up should feel like reading, not sorting. Every newsletter comes with its point, so you can read the one that matters and skip the rest.
Press H, and the Stream shows only mail from real people: the asks, the replies, and the conversations you’re part of. Receipts, newsletters, and no-reply senders step aside until you press H again.
Kite reads the signs a robot leaves, like a no-reply address or a team sign-off from a stranger. A thread you wrote in counts as a conversation, even when Gmail files it under Updates. Press Q for Quiet work, and work mail waits until Monday.
The Bundles view groups routine mail by what it is: Money, Travel, Shopping, Dev tools, Security. Each bundle shows who sent it, its newest line, and how much is unread. Step in with the right arrow, or press E to mark a whole bundle done at once.
Six money emails take one key, not six. Press Shift-B on any email to move its sender into a bundle, or to keep them out of bundles for good. The Stream stays flat, so new mail never hides inside a bundle.
Kite reads your shipping emails and turns them into one page: what arrives today, what is on the way, and what came. A one-line headline says it all, like “Three on the way, one arriving today.” Each order shows its store, its carrier, and how far along it is.
A package marked delivered never slips back to “on the way” when a late update arrives. Food delivery stays out, old news drops off on its own, and E hides an order Kite got wrong.
Your to-dos sit beside the week, each with a length. Press its number, and it lands in your next free slot as a draft. Arrow keys move it by 15 minutes, Option and the arrows move it by an hour or a day, and Tab jumps to the next free time. Shift-A places them all.
You set your to-do hours once, with working days and a lunch break, so a to-do never lands on your lunch. Shift-T turns any email into a to-do, and it remembers which email it came from.
When an email names a time, Kite sees it. Press T, and a draft event appears at that time, linked to the email, with one key for each calendar. A calendar invite shows as a card, with any clash and keys to answer yes, maybe, or no.
An email about a dentist visit and the visit itself belong together. You see that the time is free before you say yes.
Ask a question, like “when is my dentist appointment?”, and the answer sits on top: Thursday, October 15 at 8:30 AM. Results show up as you type, and each one says why it matched: in the subject, in the text, by its label, or by meaning.
On the Mac, Kite also searches by meaning, right on your computer. The dentist email never says “dentist,” and Kite still finds it. It forgives typos, “flight” also finds itineraries and boarding passes, and about a year of older mail is ready to search at once.
#f6f5f2#1a1a1e#ff5f3d#2f6df6#7656f5#11a07cThe Mac’s own system font for the app, and its serif, New York, for the Brief and the morning note.
Warm paper and one coral accent, the color of the kite in the icon. Everything else stays quiet, so the few colors mean something: a blue dot is unread, violet is AI, and every event wears its own calendar’s color.
Press J and K to move, Return to open, E to mark done, and S to star.
Important mail stays on top until you read it. Click a button instead of a key, and Kite teaches you the key.
Every email waits ten seconds before it sends. Hover over its note to hold it, or press Z to bring the draft back.
Ask Kite to bring a thread back in two days if nobody answers. If they reply first, it comes back right away.
A summary at the top lists each ask with its due date, and up to three ready replies wait below. Press 1, 2, or 3 to start one.
Click a button instead of pressing its key, and Kite says “Next time, press S to star.”
Add your coworkers’ time zone, and the week shows two hour columns. “3pm CET” in a new event means their 3 PM.
Press Command-Shift-I on an intro, and Kite moves the person who introduced you to Bcc and thanks them.