Many of us check our email constantly, but when it comes to snail mail, our inbox gets a little neglected. A company called Outbox is looking to change that, turning the traditional mail you receive in your mailbox into a digital format you can read anywhere.

Here’s how it works: Once you sign up for Outbox, the company will visit your mailbox three times a week and collect your mail on your behalf. Once it gets your mail, it then sorts it, scans it, and sends you digital versions that you can access from a smartphone app or a website on your computer.

You can request the physical copy of mail you want. Outbox will then package it and deliver it back to your mailbox within two days. Outbox will shred mail you don’t want –- or just needed to read but not keep — 30 days after it is received.

You can also opt out of mail you never want to receive, such as coupons or circulars, and Outbox will put you on a “do-not-mail” list of sorts for those things, preventing them from ever seeing your digital inbox.

Outbox launched in 2011 in Austin. Tuesday it expands to San Francisco.

“We think of the mailbox as the first social network,” Outbox co-founder Will Davis told Mashable. He and co-founder Evan Baehr say they see physical mail as an essential form of communication, however, it's something that has been modernized.

“Although we sit at this intersection of physical and digital, we think paper has a really important role in society,” Baehr said.

The service is currently just a way to filter your real-life inbox, but they say they see the service growing to be much more. For instance, if you’re on vacation, you might send your favorite magazine to a friend or get all of your mail sent to your vacation home. Outbox will also learn your preferences and make sure you receive items you may want: Say for example you receive an unsolicited gift from a merchant, such as a sample of a new product, the service will make sure you receive it.

Outbox costs $4.99 per month, which includes the cost of picking up your mail, sorting and scanning it, and delivering it back to your mailbox.

Would you prefer to receive your snail mail digitally instead? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Thumbnail image courtesy Flickr, Laineys Repertoire, Screenshot Courtesy, Outbox