This doesn't mean that Alto's influence will vanish. On top of that mysterious project, the developers expect to incorporate their know-how into "current and future products and experiences." It still means that Alto Mail is going away, though, and it's clear between this and the AOL Instant Messenger shutdown that Oath isn't keen on preserving legacy services.

As it stands, Alto Mail faced an uphill battle in the market. Many email apps have cleaned up their designs, and it's harder to argue in favor of Alto when there are higher-profile rivals (like Google's Inbox) that also make sense of your messages. The main issue is arguably the loss of yet another alternative email client, at least for now. Like it or not, the field has been consolidating around official apps.