The cross platform email client Thunderbird is to launch an Android version, which will be based on the existing K-9 app.

A month after Thunderbird's product manager, Ryan Lee Sipes, [1]tweeted that a mobile version of the email client was "coming soon", the project has [2]announced how it will do it.

It has acquired the FOSS Android email client and [3]one-time Register app of the week K-9 Mail, which will become Thunderbird for Android.

[4]

The Thunderbird Foundation has hired Christian Ketterer, known online as "cketti", developer of [5]K-9 .

[6]

[7]

Thunderbird users have been [8]asking for an Android version for years. This is an unexpected route to get there, but it's a viable one: K-9 is a well-regarded app, and one of the very few Android apps to handle traditional [9]bottom-posted email.

This is important to heavy internet email users, who are often the same sort of people who favour open-source and cross-platform tools – such as Thunderbird. Tellingly, K-9 mail is also the basis of the email client in the [10]/e/ Foundation's de-Googled smartphone .

[11]

The Mozilla Foundation [12]spun off Thunderbird in 2017, but [13]continues to back it and the program is [14]undergoing active development .

According to a recent blog [15]post , the [16]Thunderbird Project 's finances are healthy.

Sipes [17]confirmed that Apple iDevice owners will have to wait a little longer: for now, K-9 Mail is an Android-only app. However, this is arguably less urgent, as iOS and iPadOS come with a standard email client, which is fairly capable. It may also be more difficult, given [18]Apple's prohibition of competing web-rendering engines on iOS – although that [19]faces EU legal challenges .

[20]Apple's iPhone computer vision has the potential to preserve privacy but also break it completely

[21]Thunderbird 91 lands: Now native on Apple Silicon, swaps 'master' for 'primary' password, and more

[22]Six years in the making, Vivaldi Mail arrives alongside version 4.0 of the company's browser

[23]Icarus moment: Mozilla Thunderbird was saving OpenPGP keys in plaintext after encryption snafu

[24]Ubuntu 20.10 goes full Raspberry Pi, from desktop to micro clouds: Full fat desktop on a Pi is usable

The Thunderbird project has published an [25]FAQ page about the deal, which contains one very promising detail:

" Will I be able to sync my Thunderbird accounts with K-9 Mail? "

"Yes. We plan to offer Firefox Sync as one option to allow you to securely sync accounts between Thunderbird and K-9 Mail. We expect this feature to be implemented in the summer of 2023."

[26]

Synching between Thunderbird installations is a long-felt want among Thunderbird users, first opened as [27]bug 46444 a full 14 years ago – complete with a [28]bounty on its head. After a decade and a half, it would be amusing if synchronization between desktop and mobile proved to be the spur for this to finally get implemented. ®

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[1] https://twitter.com/ryanleesipes/status/1521234131543240704

[2] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2022/06/revealed-thunderbird-on-android-plans-k9/

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2011/10/25/app_of_the_week_android_k9/

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YqmtwZGaZjdFQE@ZuJ6CAQAAAIQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[5] https://github.com/k9mail

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YqmtwZGaZjdFQE@ZuJ6CAQAAAIQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YqmtwZGaZjdFQE@ZuJ6CAQAAAIQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[8] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1207764

[9] https://www.idallen.com/topposting.html

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/02/murena_e_foundation_phone_test/

[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YqmtwZGaZjdFQE@ZuJ6CAQAAAIQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2017/05/11/thunderbird_mozilla_future/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/30/mozilla_thunderbird_has_a_new_nest/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/12/thunderbird_91_released/

[15] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2022/05/thunderbird-2021-financial-report/

[16] https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/about/

[17] https://twitter.com/ryanleesipes/status/1522208767537938434

[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/23/opinion_column/

[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/26/apple_ios_browser/

[20] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/16/ai_vision_apple/

[21] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/12/thunderbird_91_released/

[22] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/09/vivaldi_4/

[23] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/24/mozilla_thunderbird_openpgp_plaintext_keys/

[24] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/23/ubuntu_2010_goes_full_raspberry/

[25] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2022/06/faq-thunderbird-mobile-and-k-9-mail/

[26] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YqmtwZGaZjdFQE@ZuJ6CAQAAAIQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[27] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=446444

[28] https://app.bountysource.com/issues/3488825-sync-for-thunderbird

[29] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/