IT Blog

Hey is the kind of tech product I really wanted to love.

In many ways, the $99-per-year email service from Basecamp is the antithesis to modern tech. Instead of bombarding you with notifications, Hey makes you opt in to them on a per-contact or per-conversation basis. It blocks read receipts and aggressively calls them out as privacy-invading “spy trackers.” Everyone that tries to email you enters a one-time screening process, so that unwanted contacts never reach your inbox. It’s a calmer take on a email from a company that’s long been wary of tech products that monopolize our attention.

Hey also became a bigger story a couple weeks ago, when Apple threatened to remove Hey’s iPhone app over Basecamp’s refusal to support in-app subscriptions, which would entitle Apple to 30% of all revenues. The companies eventually resolved their differences, but not before sparking a larger conversation about Apple’s outsize power over independent developers.

But is the product itself…