Email wasn&#x27;t designed to be used the way we use it now.<p>It&#x27;s not a to-do list protocol. In fact, as Paul Graham has put it, it&#x27;s a disastrously bad todo list (Source: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&#x2F;ambitious.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&#x2F;ambitious.html</a>)<p>It&#x27;s not a messaging protocol - email was never built for conversations, which is why conversations over email often get clunky, confusing and finding some piece of information later is near-impossible.<p>No wonder people just plain don&#x27;t like email as a communication method. It was invented in the 70s and it was intended for much lower volumes (Source: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techworld.com&#x2F;startups&#x2F;skype-cofounder-jaan-tallinn-hails-his-new-startup-fleep-as-skype-im-on-steroids-3609697&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techworld.com&#x2F;startups&#x2F;skype-cofounder-jaan-talli...</a>)<p>The thing is, most &#x27;email killers&#x27; like Slack are closed systems and thus have no shot at replacing email - the reason why email has persevered is its openness, how it is the lowest common denominator in online communications (ahem, 2,5bn users worldwide).<p>Instead of a new open protocol, Fleep (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fleep.io" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fleep.io</a>) has built a messenger that relies on the email protocol by integrating with email seamlessly. With Fleep, you can send messages to anyone who has an email address - if they&#x27;re not a Fleep user yet, they will receive the messages as normal emails. As a Fleep user, however, you already get the improved conversational experience of emails.<p>(Full disclosure: I do work at Fleep and I absolutely love the product, the ambition and the ingenious approach our founding team has taken to merging IM &amp; email.)