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Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

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Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#431

Post by alanfranz »

Just one thought (I'm not sure it's feasible, but I think it is). If I have no Google Play/other things to buy, why shouldn't I be able to:

* setup MX record with another provider (many domain register offer that as a commodity, e.g. I think Gandi does) * setup mail forwarding to my private @gmail.com account * in my private gmail, setup username@mydomain.com as an alias.

Everything should work. It may take a bit of time for the migration... but gmail.com usage with another domain should not be a real issue.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#433

Post by GeekyBear »

notyourwork wrote: post #333
jahlove wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And now we're being forced to pay for something that everyone else gets for free. > Just looks like most of our accounts are going to get deleted or are going to have to pay $6/month for nothing. Am I wrong or are you paying that $6/mo for having the gmail UI in front of your custom domain? Doesn't really seem like nothing.

100% this... there is a product definition and the free bring your own domain model is not part of the free product definition any more. I'm having trouble understanding how technically literate people are grumpy about this. It was only a matter of time. Google is a business, not your friend and you should treat interaction with them in this lens. It's not 2002 when Google was the cool hip thing to use and they seeme…

> 100% this... there is a product definition and the free bring your own domain model is not part of the free product definition any more. I'm having trouble understanding how technically literate people are grumpy about this.

People often react badly to bait and switch tactics.

The solution is to offer people a way to revert to a free personal account without losing access to their files, data, and digital goods they have purchased.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#434

Post by structural »

Apreche wrote: post #139

I knew something like this would probably come, but it doesn't make it any better. Complete BS. 16 years ago me and my friends signed up for "GMail for your domain". That's it. We wanted to use GMail, which was by far the best email available at the time, and have email addresses at our own domain instead of @gmail.com. That's it. Since that time several of us have been using our GFYD/GSuite/Workspaces accounts as ou…

I'm in the exact same boat.

What's funny is that I would probably pay a reasonable annual cost for the service (I'm already paying an annual fee for the domain), but the way this is announced is enough to lose me as a customer, permanently.

- No links to the information in my admin.google.com panel - No personal notification at all to the billing contact - An automated "upgrade" to paying a monthly cost for a formerly free product

Yeah, no. This is borderline scammy, not the way to treat people who have been your customers for 15-20 years, and who disproportionately are responsible for spending decisions at their companies.

Any competitors to Gmail want my business and support custom domains / have a reasonable strategy for migrating data away from G Suite accounts?

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#435

Post by ab_testing »

I am old enough to remember that Microsoft also had a similar free email product for custom domains called Microsoft live mail or something like that. In fact, you can still find articles on the internet about how to move from Microsoft to Google workspaces when Microsoft killed their free product.

I think even the users of this product knew that email with custom domain is a premium product that pretty much no email provider provides for free. I am still surprised that they let it run for 10+ years.

I dread the reaction on HN when Google finally decides to kill Google voice , which is another very popular but free Google service. In fact I am sure that running Google voice is even more expensive to run than workspaces because just the cost of assigning a phone number is some fractions of a dollar to the FCC.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#436

Post by wdtrsd »

apohn wrote: post #379
theossuary wrote: post #226

I'm definitely getting screwed over by this. I've hosted close friend's and family's email for a decade now on an old G Apps instance. We only ever used it for email on a custom domain. It was most useful because I could reset passwords for them if they forgot it. Now I'm going to have to figure out what to do. Microsoft's Family offering is way better (not saying much considering Google doesn't have one). Right now…

Something I just discovered is that Office 365 Family only lets you use custom domains if they are hosted by GoDaddy. If you want to use another domain registrar you have to get Microsoft 365 Business, which has a similar price as Google Workspace :( There's no way I'm moving my domain to GoDaddy.

There are reddit posts showing how to bypass the Godaddy requirement. I used them to setup Office 365 for my family.

I have since moved the family emails to icloud mail since we already pay for icloud+ and I get multiple domain support, and aliases.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#437

Post by _vertigo »

someguydave wrote: post #316
nighthawk454 wrote: post #217

"I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further". The problem here is there's no way out now. If 15 years ago you made the mistake of wanting gasp a domain for your email, you're basically roped into paying now. Almost everything a free G Suite user wants is identical to the free @gmail account, which is remaining free. Except the custom domain. Fine - but there's no way to just lose the custom domain at t…

I guess Google feels it has enough of a monopoly they can afford to piss off any finite number of people (even very early peer-to-peer evangelists of their product) and write it off as business as usual.

I mean, how many people _really_ are using this feature? And what added benefit do they provide to Google for being "early evangelists". Not defending Google, just a little surprised people think that being an early adopter would matter to a company as large as _Google_.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#439

Post by jasonjayr »

ab_testing wrote: post #435

I am old enough to remember that Microsoft also had a similar free email product for custom domains called Microsoft live mail or something like that. In fact, you can still find articles on the internet about how to move from Microsoft to Google workspaces when Microsoft killed their free product. I think even the users of this product knew that email with custom domain is a premium product that pretty much no email…

Regarding Google voice, voip.ms is lining up the features to replace that (sms/mms/voice transcription/forwarding/etc.). For $20 (paid to google) they will release your GV number so you can port it to voip.ms, and then you pay as you go there.

Re: Google requiring all ‘G Suite legacy free edition’ users to start paying

#440

Post by deadgiveaway »

pxx wrote: post #405
samueldr wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any idea if they'll make a "gmail.com" account migration utility down the line? This is extremely concerning for Play store purchases, and anything non-email attached to the "google apps for your domain" account, like YouTube.

Afaict your account will still exist, just not be linked to mail (which I get), but also not linked to calendar (which I don't get). See the email: "You may still retain access to additional Google services, such as YouTube and Google Photos."

My email didn't say "You may". May's a stupid word. Do they mean "You are permitted" or "hey, you may have access, you may not - depends how we feel".
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