How it works

What it looks at

OpenWorthy asks of each new email the questions you would ask at a glance, using only who sent it, to whom, and which conversation it belongs to — and your own history with the sender, which it learns from your Sent folder, on your computer, when you connect:

• Is it a conversation you’re in? A reply to something you wrote counts for a lot.
• Do you write to this person? People you email count for more, and people you usually reply to count for more still.
• Is it an invitation? Meeting invitations, changes and cancellations.
• Is it written to you? Mail to you alone counts for more; being copied counts for less.
• Is it sent in bulk? Newsletters, mailing lists and no-reply addresses count for less. Automatic messages, like out-of-office replies, are never marked.

An email that clears the bar gets the mark. The app shows why for every one, in words: “You’re in this conversation · You’ve emailed them 14 times”.

What it never does

• It never opens the text of an email or an attachment.
• It never moves, archives or deletes mail, never sends anything, and never marks anything as read.
• It never sends anything about you or your mail anywhere — not to us, not to anyone. Check it yourself.
• There is no AI model, here or anywhere else. Just the questions above.

You stay in charge

• Preview first. A new mailbox starts with a preview of what OpenWorthy would mark. Nothing is marked until you press Start, and anything you untick teaches it what you don’t need.
• Take a mark off in any mail app, or press Not worth it in OpenWorthy: that sender counts for less, and that email is never marked again.
• Mark something yourself, or quickly answer an email it didn’t mark: that sender counts for more. Leaving marked mail unopened for days counts a little against the sender.
• Undo any group of marks from the Activity screen.
• Mark more or fewer with Sensitivity, which shows what the change would have done last week before you apply it.
• It asks before it changes. When your corrections point to a better setting, it suggests it and waits for your yes. Every change can be reverted in Settings.

When your computer is off

OpenWorthy marks mail while one of your computers is on, so mail that arrives overnight is marked when your computer wakes.

With Pro you can have your mail server itself mark mail from the senders OpenWorthy is surest about, as it arrives — only people whose every message was worth reading. Those rules only ever add the mark and never touch filters of your own. Switch them on in Settings, under Mark mail while this computer is off, and off again at any time.

What it changes in your mailbox

Only three things: its own mark; a small note per computer, so that if you use OpenWorthy on more than one computer only one of them marks at a time; and, if you switch them on, the server rules above. Nothing else.

Technical details, for those who want them: command line, servers and NAS.