Work Outlook, personal Gmail. One bar.

What a unified inbox should do

A unified inbox puts mail from several accounts in one list. That sounds simple, but a good one has to get a few details right:

• You can always tell which account a message arrived in.
• Replies go out from the right address, every time.
• Each account keeps its own sign-in, so one expired password doesn't break the rest.
• You can still look at one account on its own when you need to.

The usual workarounds

Forwarding everything to one address. Quick to set up, but replies tend to come from the wrong address, and filters, spam and read status get out of step between accounts.

One browser tab per account. It works until you have six tabs open and can't remember which is which. Notifications only arrive while each tab stays open.

A full desktop email client. Apps such as Mailbird, eM Client and Thunderbird can show several accounts together. They're a good fit if you want to do all your email in one big program. We compare them in the best Windows inbox apps.

How TopDock handles several inboxes

TopDock isn't a full email client. It's a bar for checking and answering quickly, and it treats each account as its own tile.

Separate tiles or combined: which is better?

It depends on how different your inboxes are. If work and personal mail need different moods, keep separate tiles. You'll see "Work 4" and decide whether now is the time. If you run several similar inboxes, like a few shared support addresses, a combined tile gives you one number to clear.

You can mix both: a combined tile for the support inboxes and a separate one for your own mail.

More than email

The same bar holds X and Reddit tiles for mentions and replies, a LinkedIn tile for writing posts, and a Todos tile for the messages you can't answer yet. You can even pin a single conversation as its own tile when you're waiting on one reply.

Your accounts stay yours

Every account connects through its own official sign-in page. Tokens are stored in Windows Credential Manager, and there's no TopDock server between you and your mail. Disconnect an account and TopDock erases its sign-in and saved messages from your PC. Details are in the privacy policy.