The Box on the Hill: a Gmail viewer disguised as a game

I built a simple Gmail viewer for iOS, wrapped in a little game-like framing — instead of opening an inbox, you find a box on a hill and open it to check your mail.

Try it: coming soon to the App Store.

Who it's for

Anyone who just wants to glance at their latest Gmail messages without opening the full Gmail app — no inbox management, no folders to dig through, just a quick look at what's new.

What it does

The app shows your latest 20 Gmail messages, read-only. There's no editing, no composing, no sending — it's strictly for checking mail, not managing it. Sign in with Google, and it fetches your messages live using the gmail.readonly scope. There's no backend server: requests go straight from your device to Google, and nothing is cached or stored.

Why I made it

People in modern society need to check email quickly, every day. The process is usually fast — tap the app, see the new messages pop up on the screen, and that's it, one or two steps. I wanted a mail app that lets users slow down and have a bit of fun instead. I also wanted to give something game-like a practical purpose, rather than just being a distraction. That's the idea behind this app.

What's next

Working through App Store review. Once it's live, I'll drop the link here.