Tell HN: Goodbye HTML Gmail

Damn. I loved the basic HTML feature in Gmail when logging in on a slow-as-shit 3G connection, or I was behind several proxies and latency was an issue. More enshittification by Google.

As an alternative to moving providers entirely, Gmail still works without using the browser interface. My iPhone and desktop email clients both handle multiple providers, where Gmail is just one of a few. In other words, you can change clients immediately to try it out, and still switch email hosts if you choose and like the client later.

If at least they can stop pushing a bigger and bigger non dimissable banner to force using the gmail app when viewing from a web browser.<p>We add that discussion in our company, so yes I get why companies when to push app usage. But please make it dismissable. You have to accept that you will have a small portion of people that for a lot of reason will never use your app, don&#x27;t try to force it on them. Otherwise you&#x27;re just polarizing your user.

Those looking to jump ship and use a custom domain, I&#x27;ve been <i>very</i> happy with Migadu. I&#x27;ve set up a wildcard inbox system (really easy) such that every website gets its own address, cutting down on spam and unwanted automatic subscription noise.

Another reason I&#x27;m deprecating Gmail. I&#x27;ll keep it around awhile, but it&#x27;s already not my main email provider. I paid for ProtonMail early on and will probably pay for it again at some point even though my use of email in general is comfortably within the free tier.

I personally use plaintext for all my email, largely because I want people to be able to choose whichever font they&#x27;d like to read my email, but also because I want people reading my email to know there&#x27;s no hidden bullshit like tracking pixels or images or anything crazy like that. In a very literal sense, I feel with plaintext email, what you see is what you get.<p>Sadly, it&#x27;s getting increasingly hard to work entirely in text mode for email nowadays; people don&#x27;t have any issues reading my text mail but almost 0% of all my incoming email is plaintext compatible; for mutt I have to run most of my emails through w3m before reading them, which isn&#x27;t a huge deal but I kind of wish people would just send plaintext unless they have a specific reason not to.

I don&#x27;t _need_ full GMail feature functionality. It&#x27;s not necessary.

On one hand this is not a big deal, on the other one this is a fallback option on a slow connection and no access to IMAP apps. Someone’s day will be ruined.

Guess it&#x27;s time to cut and run. I&#x27;ve been mirroring Gmail with Proton paid for a couple of years now. Don&#x27;t use the HTML version, but might as well kick Google to the curb.

No! I use it constantly because in normal gmail I can only have like 5 versions open ( I have a lot of tabs) before my mac pro explodes. But for HTML gmail I can leave emails open for reference without exploding.<p>I use it so often, it loads so fast for multiple email accounts, instant refresh, it was so good

I switched to using the Mimestream app for my gmail and it has been fast and easy to use.

That would explain why they added selection of multiple emails (after 10 years of request) for deletion im the app.<p>It was the only feature I was using the basic html for.

Apparently, the saying, you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain is true.

Where did you see this notification?

I don&#x27;t really understand the motivation for this- its not like basic HTML emails is a difficult thing to support.<p>I’d highly recommend posteo for anyone reading this, wanting a privacy focused html-only email service.

if I could just get google workspaces &#x27;chat&#x27; on the mobile browser that would be amazing.

great i love waiting for a web app to boot itself up to display a table of email headers

So what do you get when Gmail sends email to a non-Gmail address? A link to Google?

This is a tiny bit sad, honestly.

i knew they&#x27;d do it. just like they did to googlecode.

wow, they&#x27;re not going to support the basic html view forever? terrible company. how else will I check my email in w3m?