BlindBox Mobile guide

Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail (iCloud), Yahoo, ProtonMail through Bridge, and other IMAP accounts. Read them one at a time or together in All inboxes.

The app talks to Gmail, Outlook or your IMAP server directly from the phone. Your mail is not routed through a BlindBox mail server.

A large-tile mailbox designed for screen readers, with one clear action per tile. Switch it on from the menu.

Handle mail by talking in ordinary sentences: “read my latest email”, “reply that I will be there”. Anything risky asks you to confirm first.

A tab that turns every attachment into one list you can sort, filter and search.

Describe or transcribe attachments and the pictures in an email. Your remaining AI reads for the month are shown as you go.

Hide the screen for privacy, or tune text size, contrast, spacing, themes and colors for low vision.

Recent messages and bodies are kept on the phone, so your inbox opens instantly and recently read mail is there offline.

The home screen. Across the top: the menu button, the folder name (activate it to jump to the first message), Compose, Refresh and an optional Guide button. Below that, the Messages and All Files tabs and the search field.

Opened with the menu button. From the top: your free trial status, your mailboxes and All inboxes, the Block Mode switch, folders, labels, a row for each Settings tab, Voice Mode, and Back to top.

Opens over the mailbox with the message, its attachments and its actions: Reply, Reply all, Forward, Star, Archive, Print, Delete, Report spam, Read aloud and more.

Seven tabs: Account, Accessibility, Layout, Appearance, Payments, Support and Guide.

Sign in on Google’s own page. BlindBox never sees your Google password. Calendar access is requested at the same time so invitations can be added.

Sign in on Microsoft’s own page, or choose “Use email & password instead” if your account works that way.

Use your email address and an app-specific password — not your normal password. BlindBox shows step-by-step links for creating one in your Apple or Yahoo account.

Requires Proton Mail Bridge, which provides IMAP access to Proton accounts.

Enter your address and choose Look up settings. If the server is not found, open Advanced and enter the IMAP and SMTP details from your provider.

Open the menu, expand your mailboxes and choose Add mailbox, or use Settings, Account, Connected Inboxes. On the Basic plan you can connect one mailbox; Insight and Insight Plus allow more.

Settings, Account, Default Mailbox: a specific inbox, or All inboxes. You can also reorder and remove connected inboxes there.

Settings, Account, Calendar: choose Apple (iCloud, with an app-specific password), Google or Outlook, then pick the calendar that accepted invitations go into.

Settings, Payments. Plans are bought through the App Store or Google Play; a plan bought on the website or desktop is managed from the web billing page.

A focused list with everything else one tap away.

• Messages and All Files tabs, search, and optional Gmail inbox categories.
• Inbox is always first in the menu. Starred, Sent, Drafts, Unread, Spam, Archive and Trash can be shown, hidden and reordered in Settings, Layout.
• Choose where Compose sits: at the top, bottom right, or both.
• Select several messages to archive, delete, mark as spam, mark read or unread, star or unstar them together.

Everything for one message in one place.

• Reply, Reply all, Forward, Star, Archive, Print, Next and Previous message, Delete, Report spam, Voice commands and Read aloud.
• Switch between the plain-text and formatted version.
• Optional fast actions (Next email and Delete), swiping between messages, and a Delete button on each email in the list — all in Settings, Accessibility.
• Mark read or unread, labels and Prioritize later are in each message’s action sheet in the list.

Attachments as their own list.

• Sort by date, name, size, type or person, in either direction.
• Show all files, or only files you received or sent.
• Search finds attachments in matching messages.
• Each row opens its message or downloads the file, after a safety check, to open in another app.

AI that describes what you cannot see.

• Attachments have Describe or Summary and Transcript, with “AI reads remaining this month” beside them.
• AI for this email: an overview summary, browse sections, and per-section summaries and transcripts.
• Email AI (beta) and search by meaning need a paid Insight Plus plan.
• One consent screen explains what is sent and to whom before any AI feature runs.

A composer built for screen readers.

• Choose the sending mailbox, then To, Cc and Bcc, subject and body, in plain text or formatting.
• Each recipient becomes its own item with a Remove button, and “Add another recipient” adds the next one.
• Browse suggestions opens a large list of likely contacts below the field.
• Record an audio message with a countdown, preview, play and pause, and skip 5 seconds back or forward.
• Attach files, dictate with your keyboard’s built-in dictation, or use voice action commands.
• Your draft is kept on the phone while you work; Save draft also saves it to your Drafts folder.

Answer meetings from the message.

• Invitations show Accept & add to calendar and Not attending.
• Accepted events go to the calendar you chose in Settings, Account.

Quick to open, and still useful without a signal.

• Your recent list and recently opened messages are kept on the phone for 7 days.
• Local Mail Sync keeps more: 3 months on Basic and the trial, 2 years on Insight, your whole mailbox on Insight Plus.
• Auto-refresh and notifications are in Settings, Account. Clear Synced Data removes everything stored on the phone.

Your BlindBox profile, AI reads remaining, default mailbox, connected inboxes, calendar, auto-refresh, notifications, Local Mail Sync, Clear Synced Data, Log Out and Delete BlindBox profile.

Verbose, Voice Mode, Reduce motion, swipe between messages, fast actions, screen reader mode, prefer plain text, compose mode, auto-read, read-aloud speed, voice action commands, sound and haptics, Blind Sight and language.

Block Mode, Action mode, Streamlined mode, Gmail inbox categories, the Guide button, labels, which folders appear in the menu and in what order, and file types to hide from All Files.

Light, Warm or Dark theme or Automatic, high contrast, readable font, text spacing, text size up to 200%, reading width, larger controls, stronger borders, reduced transparency, and colors for six schemes.

Your plan, trial and renewal, plan choices through the App Store or Google Play, and billing management.

Email or call the team, send feedback or diagnostics, record a screen reproduction with optional narration, and vote on requested features.

The built-in user guide.

Read or pause reading, Read thread, Email details, Attachments, Next email and Previous email.

Reply, Reply all, Forward and Compose.

Search, Folder (cycles through your folders), Gmail category, All Files, and Refresh & back to most recent email.

A Quick action tile you choose (delete, spam, archive, read or unread, star, or labels), More actions, and Prioritize later.

Settings, Guide, and Mailbox when you have more than one account.

Read the current email, go to the next or previous one, repeat, or stop.

Search your mail, open folders, ask who sent a message, or ask about its attachments.

Get a summary of a message or an attachment.

Dictate a reply or a new message, hear it back, and send it.

Hear and accept meeting invitations.

Deleting, sending and other big changes need a spoken confirmation, and you can say “undo”.

Hide the screen while VoiceOver or TalkBack keeps working — useful on a bus, in an office, or anywhere you want privacy.

• Turn it on in Settings, Accessibility, Blind Sight.
• Choose whether to show a Blind Sight button so you can switch quickly.

Built and tested around VoiceOver and TalkBack.

• Each sign-in step and major change is announced.
• In key places, such as entering Block Mode or opening the composer, BlindBox moves your screen reader to the right spot for you.
• Verbose adds extra detail to announcements; screen reader mode tunes the app for a reader.
• Back to top appears at the end of long screens.

BlindBox can read messages in the phone’s own voice.

• Choose slow, normal or fast, and use Test read aloud to hear it.
• Auto-read opened message starts reading as soon as a message opens.
• Reading stops if you leave the app, and only starts again when you ask.

Sounds and vibrations confirm what happened, with individual cues you can switch on or off.

Combine as many of these as you like.

• Text size up to 200%, a readable font, extra spacing, and full, comfortable or narrow reading width.
• Light, Warm or Dark theme, Automatic to follow the phone, and high contrast.
• Larger controls, stronger borders and reduced transparency.
• Edit the colors of all six schemes.

Settings that cut out movement and taps.

• Reduce motion calms transitions.
• Fast actions, swipe between messages and a Delete button on each email shorten common tasks.
• Prefer plain text when formatted mail is cluttered.

Choose from 18 languages on the Welcome screen or in Settings, Accessibility. Arabic and Hebrew lay out right to left.