The End of an Era for Gmail POP3 or Gmailify Imports

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For years, many of us have used Gmail as a “central hub” for all our email addresses. Whether it was a personal, side-project or work address the ability to “Check mail from other accounts” via POP3 or “Gmailify” made life easy.

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However, Google recently announced a major shift in how these features work. If you rely on Gmail to pull in emails from other providers (like Outlook, Yahoo, or private domains), there is a sunset date on the horizon that you need to prepare for. Here is what we need to know about the upcoming changes

What is Changing?

Google is officially removing support for two legacy features:

1. Gmailify: The feature that allowed you to get Gmail-style spam protection and organization on a third-party account.
2. Check mail from other accounts (POP3): The setting that allowed Gmail to “fetch” mail from other servers on your behalf.

When was this announced and What is the timeline?

Google updated the support page without a public fanfare, the timeline of when people actually found out varies:

• Initial Discovery (October 2025): The first reports of the updated help article (specifically article 16604719) began appearing in October 2025, which gave a three-month warning before the 2026 phase-out began.
• Widespread User Awareness (January 2026): Many users only discovered the change when they received in-app alerts or emails from Google in mid-to-late January 2026, leading to a surge of discussions on tech forums like Reddit and The Register.

Instead of a blog post on the “The Keyword” (Google’s official blog), they updated the Gmail Help Center. This is a common practice for Google when retiring features that are considered “legacy” or have low usage compared to their main mobile app traffic. Quick Summary of the Timing:

Google is rolling this change out in two phases:

• Announcement: October 2025 (via support page update).
• Phase 1: Early 2026: New users will no longer be able to set up these features.
• Phase 2: Late 2026: These features will be fully turned off for existing users.

Why is Google doing this?

In short: Security. Legacy protocols like POP3 are less secure than modern standards. By moving away from “fetching” mail, Google is encouraging users to use IMAP and more secure authentication methods. This change helps protect your data and ensures that your emails are synced more reliably across all your devices.

What does this mean for you?

If you currently use Gmail to check your other email accounts, don’t worry—you won’t lose your emails. Everything you have already imported will stay in your inbox. However, once the change takes effect, new emails will stop flowing in automatically.

How to Prepare (The “Clean” Transition)

To ensure you don’t miss any messages, here are the two best ways to move forward:

1. Use the Gmail Mobile App (For Phone/Tablet) The Gmail app for Android and iOS will still support third-party accounts. You can simply “Add another account” using the modern IMAP setting. This keeps your accounts separate but allows you to switch between them easily in one app.

2. Set up “Automatic Forwarding” (For Desktop) If you want all your emails to continue appearing in your main Gmail inbox on your computer:

• Log into your other email provider (e.g., GoDaddy, Outlook, or Bluehost).
• Look for the Forwarding settings.
• Set it to automatically forward a copy of every incoming email to your @gmail.com address.
• Note: You can still use the “Send mail as” feature in Gmail so your replies look like they’re coming from your professional address.

Web vs. Desktop: Which “Hub” is Right for You?

Many of us have spent a decade treating Gmail (the web app) as our home base. As Google closes the door on importing third-party accounts, you have to decide: do you stay in the browser or switch to dedicated software?

Feature	Web-Based Hubs (e.g., Missive, Superhuman)	Desktop Apps (e.g., Outlook, Thunderbird)
Accessibility	Access from any computer via a URL. No installation needed.	Requires software installation on every device you use.
Performance	Can be faster; doesn’t eat up your computer’s storage space.	Can be heavy on RAM, but works 100% offline.
Multi-Account	Best for toggling between 5+ professional “identities” instantly.	Great for managing “Archive” files and deep local storage.
Security	Managed by the provider; usually includes modern SSO/2FA.	You are responsible for software updates and local data backups.

The Bottom Line

While it’s always a bit of a headache when a favorite workflow changes, this move is part of a larger industry-wide push to make email more secure. By making the switch to IMAP or forwarding now, you can beat the 2026 deadline and ensure your communication stays seamless.

The Bigger Picture: With Gmail disabling this capability, I believe there is a massive opportunity for other companies to differentiate themselves. Many of us don’t just want an “email account”—we want a central command for our digital lives.

This shift creates a gap for dedicated companies to step in and offer high-end, web-based consolidated applications that can read, write, and send from multiple accounts natively. Since so many of us already work this way, the market is ripe for a new player to become the ultimate “universal” email hub. Whether it’s a sleek new startup or an existing player like Missive or Superhuman expanding their reach, the future of the “Unified Inbox” is just beginning.