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

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

What’s actually being removed

  • The change affects Gmail’s web “Check mail from other accounts” feature, which periodically pulls mail from other providers via POP and imports it into your Gmail inbox.
  • POP/IMAP access to your Gmail account from clients (Thunderbird, Mail.app, etc.) is not being removed.
  • Gmail’s mobile apps can still access third‑party accounts via IMAP, but those show up as separate inboxes, not merged into your Gmail account.
  • Many people found Google’s announcement extremely unclear and initially feared all POP access would be dropped.

How people were using POP‑fetch into Gmail

  • Consolidating many addresses (vanity domains, old ISP/college accounts, Yahoo/Outlook, cheap shared hosting mail) into one Gmail inbox and UI.
  • Relying on Gmail’s spam filter instead of running their own on small/self‑hosted domains.
  • Doing one‑time or gradual migrations between accounts without running a desktop client.
  • Pulling then deleting from the source server to avoid storage limits on small/cheap providers while using Google storage they already pay for.

Workarounds and alternatives

  • Push instead of pull: configure external accounts to forward to Gmail, then use “Send mail as” via external SMTP.
  • Concerns: forwarded mail often hits Gmail’s spam, is sometimes silently dropped, and can fail DMARC when SPF‑only alignment is used.
  • Run a local or server‑side tool (fetchmail, imapsync, mbsync, offlineimap, containers) to POP/IMAP from external accounts and then IMAP into some mailbox (possibly Gmail).
  • Move aggregation away from Gmail to providers like Fastmail, Proton (via their bridge), Zoho, Migadu, or self‑hosted setups (Mailu, docker‑mailserver).
  • Some users are planning to abandon Gmail entirely and point domains to alternative providers.

POP vs IMAP and deliverability

  • Several posters still prefer POP for minimizing server‑side exposure and maintaining local control; others view POP as obsolete and fragile with multiple clients.
  • There’s debate over Gmail’s spam filtering quality vs competitors; some call it “industry‑leading,” others report frequent false positives and missed spam, especially for forwarded mail.

Motivations and trust

  • Speculated drivers: tiny user base vs maintenance/security cost; interop headaches; storage/infra cost; or nudging small businesses off cheap hosting + POP and into paid Google Workspace.
  • Some see the change as part of a broader pattern of Gmail “enshittification,” centralization, and lock‑in, reinforcing their decision to back up or exit Google’s ecosystem.