K-9 is probably the best Android email client, which is part of the reason Thunderbird took it over. Why then, is their first instinct to completely redesign something. Just to make their mark? It’s already good, leave it alone :’(
K-9 has been generally recognized as needing a UI refresh, though. The last time it got an update was around Android 5, so the current UI is based on that Holo design; there have been two generations of Material design since then. The fact that there’s demand for it is shown by the existence of at least two Material forks of K-9. One failed to be complete enough to upstream, the other diverged too much to upstream and leaned heavily into being an encrypted email client.
I agree that too much change just for change’s sake would be bad, but these changes have been a long time coming. It’s worth it to fit in with the rest of the system, and to incorporate modern interface conventions (like swiping to Trash or Archive from the message list). I’m not associated with the K-9 or Thunderbird projects; I’ve just been a K-9 user since Android 4, but have mostly switched to FairMail for mostly UI reasons.
The two must useful and time saving features I use with FairMail were in K-9 when I left, and were not planned either. I don’t know if they are there now.
I absolutely love the ability to Trash or Archive a message from the notification pull down. Also, Trash or Archive in the message list with a single swipe.
These two features have greatly improved my experience with email, and increased the speed with which I act on my email.
The “swipe to archive or delete” UX is fantastic! I don’t recall where I first encountered it, probably Gmail for Android a long time ago, but it was a game changer for me as well!
I’m not a fan of the new UI, but the deeper PGP integration looks nice. I’m hopeful that they won’t ruin it, but I’m sure a nice community fork will spring up if they do.
K-9 is probably the best Android email client, which is part of the reason Thunderbird took it over. Why then, is their first instinct to completely redesign something. Just to make their mark? It’s already good, leave it alone :’(
K-9 has been generally recognized as needing a UI refresh, though. The last time it got an update was around Android 5, so the current UI is based on that Holo design; there have been two generations of Material design since then. The fact that there’s demand for it is shown by the existence of at least two Material forks of K-9. One failed to be complete enough to upstream, the other diverged too much to upstream and leaned heavily into being an encrypted email client.
I agree that too much change just for change’s sake would be bad, but these changes have been a long time coming. It’s worth it to fit in with the rest of the system, and to incorporate modern interface conventions (like swiping to Trash or Archive from the message list). I’m not associated with the K-9 or Thunderbird projects; I’ve just been a K-9 user since Android 4, but have mostly switched to FairMail for mostly UI reasons.
I am not of the opinion that UIs must keep up with trends, nor that every UI must look similar to its contemporaries.
This is sad. The old UI is clear, to the point, without fluff. K-9 will be missed :(
The two must useful and time saving features I use with FairMail were in K-9 when I left, and were not planned either. I don’t know if they are there now.
I absolutely love the ability to Trash or Archive a message from the notification pull down. Also, Trash or Archive in the message list with a single swipe.
These two features have greatly improved my experience with email, and increased the speed with which I act on my email.
The “swipe to archive or delete” UX is fantastic! I don’t recall where I first encountered it, probably Gmail for Android a long time ago, but it was a game changer for me as well!
s/were/were not/
This may bring some of my users back to k9
I had vaguely thought that Mozilla was winding down the thunderbird project like it did seamonkey, but they’re actually growing it and get loads of money in donations! https://blog.thunderbird.net/2022/05/thunderbird-2021-financial-report/
I at least hope it remains on F-Droid unlike the Firefox browsers on Android. K-9 has worked for me since I migrated to Posteo.
I’m not a fan of the new UI, but the deeper PGP integration looks nice. I’m hopeful that they won’t ruin it, but I’m sure a nice community fork will spring up if they do.
So, in a nutshell, K9 is being wound down in favour of Thunderbird. Yeah, I can’t see that going well…
Isn’t that just looks like any other email client, such as gmail?
FWIW K9Mail is the only Android client I know of that can handle proper quoting.
So, no, it’s not just another email client at all.