Edison Mail has announced a new paid subscription service, Edison Mail Plus, which adds a variety of anti-phishing and security-focused features to the email app for either $14.99 per month or $99.99 per year.
The primary addition is a new “verify sender” feature, which flags suspicious emails when they arrive in your inbox and tries to provide better information around whether the person or company messaging you is legitimate. The system checks for standard email authentication markers like DMARC, does server tests to make sure that the email address can actually send and receive emails (and isn’t a spoofed address), and checks the email against a variety of existing spam databases.
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Edison also uses a local, device-based scan of your existing email and contacts to validate your contacts and tell whether an email is being sent from an authentic previous contact or an imposter. (The company makes a point to note that all the scanning takes place directly on your phone, and that the information there doesn’t leave your device.) The new feature also allows you to easily update your contacts, should there be legitimate changes.
Lastly, Edison is adding better spam blocking — it’ll automatically recognize phone numbers you receive in emails and show that contact information on incoming calls and texts, and offer a one-tap option to block numbers from your email, too.
I was able to try out the new features, and while they’re certainly nice additions, it’s hard to imagine paying the hefty $14.99 per month that Edison is charging here. Unless you’re someone particularly plagued by phishing issues, common sense and Gmail’s existing anti-spam measures seem more than sufficient.
