Forem: Suprit Gandhi

The Inbox Was Never Designed for This

Suprit Gandhi — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:39:47 +0000

Most modern communication happens in specialized tools.

Teams collaborate in Slack.
Friends and family talk on WhatsApp.
Companies coordinate work in Microsoft Teams.

Each of these tools works well within its own environment.

But when a conversation doesn’t belong inside one of those tools, something predictable happens.

It moves to email.

You see this everywhere.

A founder reaching out to an investor.
A freelancer pitching a client.
A candidate contacting a hiring manager.
Someone asking a company about a partnership.

In these situations, the first question is almost always the same:

“What’s their email?”

Despite all the communication tools we use today, email remains the place where many important conversations begin.

Not because it's good at this. Because there's nothing else.

But this creates an interesting problem.

The inbox was never designed for this.

Email was designed to deliver messages between addresses.

And for that purpose, it works remarkably well.

But modern communication has changed.

Today we use the same email address for many completely different kinds of conversations:

hiring discussions
partnership proposals
customer requests
internal updates
newsletters
invoices and receipts
cold outreach

Everything flows into the same inbox.

Over time this creates familiar issues:

conversations get buried
threads grow long and confusing
different contexts mix together
managing communication becomes harder than it should be

The inbox becomes a place where many unrelated conversations compete for attention.

The problem isn’t that email fails to deliver messages.

The problem is that all communication is forced through the same channel and you sort it out after. Every single day.

Communication happens in contexts. Email doesn't.

Think about how you actually communicate.
Hiring is a context. Partnerships are a context. Customer support is a context. Each one has different expectations: who should be involved, what information matters, how the conversation should unfold.

But email treats all of them the same way. One address. One inbox. No structure until you create it manually, after everything has already arrived.

Sure, most people build workarounds: folders, labels, filters, tags. And they work, to a point. But a folder is just a box you sort into after the message lands. It doesn't change how communication arrives. It changes how you file it away.

That's not structure. That's cleanup.

What if context existed before the first message?

That's the question I kept coming back to as a software engineer.
Every new communication tool that launched just added another email client. More platforms. More places for context to get lost.

Nobody was fixing the foundation, everyone was building on top of it.

So I started exploring a different approach with RelayBeam.
Instead of one address for everything, you create Ports: dedicated communication points for different contexts. Each Port has its own address and its own space.

For example: Say your username is alex and you're hiring.

You create a port called hiring.

Your Port address becomes:

alex@hiring

and it can be used for job-related conversations

alex@partnerships

for collaboration inquiries

alex@feedback

for product feedback

Instead of giving out a single email address for every situation, you share the Port that matches the conversation. If someone wants to reach you about hiring, they use your hiring Port address. If they want to discuss a partnership, they use that Port.

Conversations arrive already organised by context; not sorted after the fact in a crowded inbox.

Why this structural change matters.

When communication starts with context, several things get simpler at once.
Messages arrive in the right place. Related conversations stay together. Different types of communication stop competing inside the same inbox.

But the bigger shift is more subtle. Instead of managing what arrives, you start designing how people reach you. That's a different relationship with communication entirely.

Communication tools have improved dramatically over the past decade. Real-time messaging, collaborative workspaces, mobile-first design. All of it has transformed how people interact online.

But when we need to reach someone outside our immediate tools or networks, we still default to a single inbox.

Maybe the next step isn't a smarter filter or a faster inbox.
Maybe it's rethinking how communication is structured before messages even arrive.
Because when context comes first, conversations become easier to manage, easier to follow, and easier to respond to.

And that might be a better foundation for how we communicate on the internet going forward.

If you’re curious about how RelayBeam works, you can learn more here
https://relaybeam.com/about

RelayBeam is live on web, Android and iOS. Just try it and see how it feels.

Why do we still fall back to email for messages outside our usual tools?

Suprit Gandhi — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 01:31:17 +0000

In my intro post, I gave a quick overview of RelayBeam: a platform I built to handle both internal and external communication in one place.

In this post, I want to talk about why I’m building it. What gaps I saw in today’s tools, and what led me to believe something better was possible.

We have messaging tools for our friends.

We have tools for our teams.

But what happens when you need to reach someone outside those circles?

A vendor
A freelance collaborator
A potential client
Someone you just met at an event

Chances are, you default to email.

Not because it’s ideal - just because it’s the only option left.

That’s the communication gap I wanted to fix.

The tools we have… and the problems they don’t solve

WhatsApp and iMessage work well for personal relationships
Slack and Microsoft Teams work for internal communication

But the moment we try to cross organizational or personal boundaries, we hit friction.

Email becomes the default. It’s universal, but it’s not built for fast, focused, intentional messaging:

You need to share your address.
You create a thread that feels more like a document exchange than a real conversation.
There’s pressure to be formal - even when it’s a casual request or one-line question.

When the message matters - but doesn’t fit neatly into a chat thread or a formal inbox - none of the existing tools feel right.

What is RelayBeam?

RelayBeam is a platform designed for that exact moment - when you want to reach someone outside your usual circles, but want to do it in a clear, private, and purpose-driven way.

Instead of sharing your phone number or email, you share a port - a unique RelayBeam address for communication. No personal info exposed. No cluttered inboxes. No new account required for every conversation.

You get:

✅ A clean, focused space for messaging
✅ Real-time or asynchronous communication
✅ Privacy by default
✅ Flexibility to use it professionally or personally

RelayBeam organizes conversations by topic (like threads), but feels more like real-time chat - direct, human, and without email’s formality or baggage.

It’s built for communication across boundaries, without the overhead of email or the noise of typical chat apps.

(Curious how ports work? Learn more about it here)

Why I built it

As a founder, software engineer, and product builder, I’ve lived this pain repeatedly. Too often, I found myself using tools that weren’t designed for the kind of interactions I was having.

Messaging a potential partner? Use email.
Talking to a vendor? Email again.
Following up with someone from an event? Guess what - email.

But it felt clunky, slow, and impersonal.
That’s when I realized: we need a third space. A platform built for messages that fall in between.

It’s not about formality or threads. It’s about intention and connection - without friction.

Whether you’re sending a quick check-in or a meaningful message, RelayBeam gives you the right level of clarity, focus, and control.

🚀 Try RelayBeam

I’ve been testing RelayBeam with early beta users around the world - and the feedback so far has been incredible.

So now, I’m opening up early access more broadly.

👉 Start using RelayBeam - Get Early Access (it’s free!)

👉 Learn more about how RelayBeam works

📣 Let’s connect:

LinkedIn
Twitter/X

Thanks for reading - and for caring about better communication.