Google Is Ending Gmailify and POP Support (pcworld.com)
(Friday October 03, 2025 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the migration-required dept.)
- Reference: 0179646672
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/10/03/2248228/google-is-ending-gmailify-and-pop-support
- Source link: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2928100/gmail-users-watch-out-these-2-features-are-being-killed-next-year.html
Google will [1]discontinue Gmailify and POP email support in January 2026 , forcing users who rely on these features to switch to IMAP. PCWorld reports:
> These [2]changes only affect future emails. Emails that have already been synchronized in the Gmail account will remain the same. External accounts can still be used in the Gmail app, but only via IMAP. Google also recommends that users with work or education accounts contact their administrators if a Google Workspace migration is needed.
>
> For many Gmail users, these changes will likely mean getting used to the new system. Anyone who previously upgraded their external email accounts with [3]Gmailify or integrated them via [4]POP will have to switch to IMAP by January 2026 at the latest and do without some convenient functions, like spam filters and automatic sorting.
[1] https://www.pcworld.com/article/2928100/gmail-users-watch-out-these-2-features-are-being-killed-next-year.html
[2] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/16604719?hl=en
[3] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6304825?sjid=6868338582007376846-NC
[4] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?hl=en
> These [2]changes only affect future emails. Emails that have already been synchronized in the Gmail account will remain the same. External accounts can still be used in the Gmail app, but only via IMAP. Google also recommends that users with work or education accounts contact their administrators if a Google Workspace migration is needed.
>
> For many Gmail users, these changes will likely mean getting used to the new system. Anyone who previously upgraded their external email accounts with [3]Gmailify or integrated them via [4]POP will have to switch to IMAP by January 2026 at the latest and do without some convenient functions, like spam filters and automatic sorting.
[1] https://www.pcworld.com/article/2928100/gmail-users-watch-out-these-2-features-are-being-killed-next-year.html
[2] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/16604719?hl=en
[3] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6304825?sjid=6868338582007376846-NC
[4] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7104828?hl=en
Are people still using POP(3)? (Score:2)
IMAP has been around for a few decades at this point.
Re: (Score:2)
Inertia. POP is simple to configure, guaranteed to work, and there's no advantage in IMAP if all you do is fetch a single mailbox folder onto your machine.
Personally I've already switched my gmail fetching tools to IMAP due to being the way for oauth2 (otherwise it still would be using POP).
Re: (Score:3)
> there's no advantage in IMAP if all you do is fetch a single mailbox folder onto your machine.
I'd argue that's only true if you have a *single* machine. Once you start wanting your mail two (or more) places, POP's shortcomings become very obvious.
Re: (Score:2)
Gmail being the email client effectively makes it a "single machine" - and this has worked well for over two decades until now.
Re: (Score:2)
I was using POP up until a few years ago. I believe Google said this change was going to happen a while back so I switched to IMAP. Just went into Thunderbird to verify ... yep, all Gmail accounts using IMAP.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, but not in the way described in the article. I have a catch-all email address for my domain.
My Gmail is configured to fetch its content via POP3. I used to have auto-forwaed to Gmail, but this got blocked due to the spam delivery over SMTP.
Doing the fetch via POP works around it.
I have been doing this for years. For each entity I do business woth, I use a different email address in my domain.
If they sell my email address or get compromised, I know who it came from.
Recently, the courage campaign sold my
Re: (Score:2)
100% the same setup here too. I've had a "catch all" email address that Gmail polls and fetches, then sorts based on the destination email address. Without this now, and due to other shit Google has been doing, I don't see a reason to keep Gmail as my email client anymore. There are plenty of feature-parity-enough web based email clients in the world now, I don't need them anymore.
Re: (Score:3)
I finally dumped Gmail this year after seeing the ways Alphabet is participating in Project 2025. I'd rather not have all my correspondence where those guys are scanning it. Should have done it years ago, $5/mo is not very much for something so essential.