Gmail is killing off POP3 fetch "starting January 2026", Google announced this week, alongside the news it is also deprecating Gmailify, a service that dates from when Hotmail was still a thing.
Google did not say whether it would delay the POP3 shutoff if there is a sufficient gnashing of teeth, nor did it provide its technical reasoning, only that it is definitely going.
"Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts through POP," said its notice. "The option to 'Check mail from other accounts' will no longer be available in Gmail on your computer."
The news was met with smugness from those who have modern email workflows, but a surprising number of people expressed frustration. Among them are those old enough to have Yahoo addresses, because auto-forwarding is a premium option available only for Yahoo Mail Plus users since 2021.
Also unimpressed are those who use POP3 as a migration tool. Short of using a tool such as Imapsync, that will now seemingly require a desktop client to act as a POP-to-IMAP bridge, instead of making Gmail do all the work.
Also Gmailify
Gmailify was an app-first 2016 effort to allow a non-technical transition to Gmail. It is available on a handful of other services, but was mostly limited to Yahoo, AOL, Outlook, and Hotmail.
The announcements around its launch hark back to a strange time before Gmail became utterly dominant in the free and freemium space.
"Many of you would like more of Gmail’s powerful features, like spam protection and inbox organization, on these accounts—but don’t want to go through the hassle of changing your email address," read one official post.
The link has been copied!
