The prototype gives users the option of seeing threads as either scattered or gathered. In conventional email clients, all the messages in a thread are scattered throughout the in-box. A gathered thread reduces this clutter by bringing all of the messages together and representing the entire thread with one message (see the screenshot). The summary message appears in the list as the most recent message in the thread. As new messages arrive in the in-box, the gathered thread "moves forward," appearing under the most recent reply. In both types of threads, when the user selects a message, he or she can see it in the preview pane and navigate to the other messages in the thread via a thread map that also appears in the preview pane.

Hovering over the thread count in the inbox displays a one-line summary of each message in the thread in a pop-up window.