Dropbox is killing Carousel and Mailbox, and I am heartbroken
Dropbox is my absolute favorite cloud storage service. Even though I can get free storage to meet much of my needs from other providers, such as Microsoft, I still pay for the Dropbox Pro service. Why? Well, it is the only true cross-platform solution, working well with Ubuntu, Windows, iOS and Android -- all operating systems I use regularly. Not to mention, I love the interface style and constant improvements made to the service.
My most important files, you see, are my family photos. My memories are more precious than anything. This is where Dropbox really shines for me, as I can easily upload my photos to the cloud. My favorite app is Carousel, which ties into Dropbox so I can easily view and share these photos. Today, Dropbox announces that is is killing Carousel. Its popular email client, Mailbox, is being killed too, after a long period of neglect.
"Building new products is about learning as much as it’s about making. It’s also about tough choices. Over the past few months, we’ve increased our team’s focus on collaboration and simplifying the way people work together. In light of that, we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Carousel and Mailbox", says Dropbox.
The company further says, "we're committed to making the transitions from these products as painless as possible. We’ve posted more information on the Carousel blog and the Mailbox blog, and we’ll be communicating details directly to users of both apps in the coming days. Mailbox will be shut down on February 26th, 2016, and Carousel will be shut down on March 31st, 2016".
Sigh. Mailbox's demise is upsetting, as it is yet another service that is bought by a large company, only to be shut down. It is actually quite brilliant, pre-dating Google's Inbox, with an intent of keeping the user focused on new email. Unfortunately, it never made it to Windows, and only supported iCloud and Gmail.
These deficiencies made it a poor choice for users of multiple email providers, and the promises to expand to Microsoft's operating system and to support other email providers never made it to fruition. Who knows what could have been had Dropbox not bought it. Oh well, rest in peace. I loved this app, and it will live on in my memories.
The bigger loss, to me, is Carousel -- something I use daily and enjoy. For me to stay with Dropbox, the Android and iOS apps must get better photo viewing and sharing support, hopefully gaining all, or most, of the Carousel functionality. If this is just a move to make a more focused, single app I am OK with that.
Are you upset by the planned killing of these popular services? Tell me in the comments.
Photo credit: Roman Rybaleov / Shutterstock