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Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

support.google.com

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Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#111

Post by nerdsniper »

metadat wrote: post #100
londons_explore wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always find the admin panel hugely restrictive. It's missing basic features like "just let me impersonate this user now". The number of times our support staff have to walk someone through the process of doing something when the ability to impersonate a user would just let them do it far quicker.

> Nobody deserves even a modicum of privacy. Let's make it 0 friction to inspect what they're doing at all times. Features cut both ways. Am I respectful of my work equipment? Yes. Would it be net good for my boss to automatically get a report of everything on my screen everyday, not particularly. So could we not have the largest platforms make it even easier than it already is to be creepy AF?

Every system I design has this "impersonation" feature, and none of them have any capability for surveilling usage. It's just a way for me to see what my customers are seeing. Helps me understand their problems, bugs in my system, etc.

I have direct access to all the prod databases and lots of tools for inspection/auditing. This isn't for that. It's for helping people by seeing/using the system through their eyes.

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#112

Post by pbreit »

xp84 wrote: post #41

Hypothesis: This feature is actually a very serviceable way for a small business or individual to have a branded email address on very cheap email hosting, while getting Gmail features for free. Google wants such people to be paying for Google Workspace if they don't want to be advertising the Gmail brand on their address.

IMAP, which is MUCH better at doing the same thing, is still supported.

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#113

Post by layman51 »

metadat wrote: post #100
londons_explore wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always find the admin panel hugely restrictive. It's missing basic features like "just let me impersonate this user now". The number of times our support staff have to walk someone through the process of doing something when the ability to impersonate a user would just let them do it far quicker.

> Nobody deserves even a modicum of privacy. Let's make it 0 friction to inspect what they're doing at all times. Features cut both ways. Am I respectful of my work equipment? Yes. Would it be net good for my boss to automatically get a report of everything on my screen everyday, not particularly. So could we not have the largest platforms make it even easier than it already is to be creepy AF?

It ideally doesn't need to be a privacy-invading thing, but rather a way for administrators troubleshoot issues a bit easier without having to get on a screensharing call. I think maybe what makes it difficult is that Gmail might be used as the key to authenticate into other accounts (like for shadow IT).

And in the ideal case, even this action that a Google Workspace administrator logged in as someone else would be automatically written into an audit trail.

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#116

Post by [deleted] »

xp84 wrote: post #41

Hypothesis: This feature is actually a very serviceable way for a small business or individual to have a branded email address on very cheap email hosting, while getting Gmail features for free. Google wants such people to be paying for Google Workspace if they don't want to be advertising the Gmail brand on their address.

[deleted]

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#117

Post by suzzer99 »

znort_ wrote: post #48
jimrandomh wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it doesn't make it clear, because it's written by a third party reading the same internally-inconsistent page I am; any information added beyond the Google documentation page is conjecture.

"Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts through POP." seems quite clear.

What does "from a third-party account" mean?

I have a test suite that accesses a gmail account through POP. It's a regular gmail account. Will that be affected?

Edit: Okay I think not. But man is this confusing over whether it's Gmail that's doing the fetching over POP (a feature I had no idea existed) or somehting they're calling a third-party account fetching Gmail emails over POP.

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#118

Post by kumarharsh »

seydor wrote: post #115

They are discontinuing fetching from POP server, but fetching from IMAP is not supported either. So they are discontinuing fetching altogether, right? it won't even be available in the paid version, right? why are they being confusing?

IMAP is supported afaik: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/78892?hl=en#zippy=

Re: Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts via POP

#119

Post by suzzer99 »

I finally figured out the confusion here. What a terribly worded article. Could mean two different things:

1) Some kind of third-party account (whatever that is) can no longer check (fetch) emails from Gmail via POP. I have a test suite that uses POP to fetch emails from Gmail, so this concerns me.

2) Gmail itself can no longer fetch emails from other email accounts over POP (a feature I had no idea existed).

I guess it means #2. But it took me a long time to figure that out. You'd think a $trillion company could word things better.

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