Mozilla Thunderbird for Android is now available in beta, built upon the K-9 Mail app.
The beta includes core email features like account setup, email organization, and notifications, with feedback encouraged from users.
Thunderbird for Android will remain a separate app from K-9 Mail, requiring users to migrate if they previously used K-9.
For anyone who was using K-9 wondering why Thunderbird looks no different, it’s because they aren’t different.
They build both apps from the exact same codebase. Only difference between the two are the default color scheme, the branding icons, and the text strings of the application’s name. It’s literally just a choice of which brand skin you prefer.
Which, honestly, kinda cool. A virtually zero-cost way to keep a few K-9 stans happy.
As long as it’s compliant with Thunderbird, eg. using the same autoconfig at /mail/config-v1.1.xml, I’m happy.
I cannot imagine that it would support that. Android generally does not give its users root access…
No, autoconfig is a way for mail servers to tell clients the config they should use (ports, ssl/starttls, username, name/domain of the server, authentication for imap, pop and smtp). There are multiple standards by different mail client devs, eg. Thunderbird, K-9 Mail and some other check for autoconfig.<mailserverdomain>/mail/config-v1.1.xml and outlook etc. check for a “autodiscover” SRV record, or use autodiscover.<emaildomain> or check <emaildomain>/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml. As you see, it’s a mess. Well, only Outlooks “standard” is, as usually you wouldn’t care because M$ Winshit
CrasherServer does that automatically, so they don’t care about good docs. Thunderbirds autoconfig is pretty well made and documented tho.Oh right, that’s a server URL path, I thought it was just some config file one would have on their Linux host.
And this says that K-9 supports the same autoconfig as Thunderbird, so presumably the rebranded app would, too: https://forum.k9mail.app/t/autodiscover-autoconfig/7118
Literally running into this problem. I have a microsoft account with shared calendar and just can’t seem to add it to the outlook app. It keeps trying to go to my domain. There’s a button to specify the provider, outlook, but it just won’t do it. Can’t tell what this closed source garbage is doing wrong, it shows the manual entry fields with my server’s info entered wrongfully.
https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/releases/tag/THUNDERBIRD_8_0b1
Here’s the release page if you wanna grab it from github :)
Edit: Didn’t intend that to be a winky face, not trying to be smug 😅
The most anticipated release of 2013.
Wasn’t it supposed to be released on IOS too ?
Honestly, if you’re in the audience for Thunderbird on Android, you probably also want to have a look at FairMail
instead.Edit: phrasing
Why? What does FairMail do better? The headline says it’s privacy oriented, but so is k-9.
I’d say customizability. Haven’t used k-9 since I found FairEmail so can’t really say anything about how it is now but it used to be pretty bare bones. At least compared to FairEmail.
I love FairEmail’s simplified mail viewer that doesn’t render HTML mails completely and they look more like an enhanced plain text mail instead.
I’ve really tried to use it, im sorry it’s just so ugly
I agree, it’s kind of funny in their website claim they don’t put “bells and whistles” in their UI yet it looks way cluttered compared to K-9/Thunderbird.
No doubt it can work better than the aforementioned but it’d be nice if their devs could be a bit humble and recognize its UI could get some love and it would be beneficial for FairEmail.
I’m sure it’s a very capable email client, but the UI just didn’t mesh well with me.
*FairEmail
I uninstalled it quickly after finding out it was trialware (missing features; popups to pay)
If I remember correctly, you should be able to just install the GitHub version.
I’d love FairMail for desktop Linux
They have a desktop for Linux??? I’ve been using it for years and I only get to learn this now! I’m going to try it immediately lmao. Thank you!!
You misunderstood. they said they would love a desktop version, not that they love the desktop version
I noticed after a couple of minutes hahah
OK, I switched. I don’t know if it’s a placebo because it looks identical but ut feels smoother.
For me it definitely looks different, are you sure you have the new version…? They’ve updated a lot of the UI elements to material design 3, but kept all the same layout and whatnot
I really like it so far! Feels like a really welcome refresh
Noob question:
Is there any advantage over my phone’s stock email client, considering 99% of my emails are confirmation emails from online shops and similar stuff and I hardly ever actually send an email to anyone or receive one from an actual person anymore?
@Don_alForno @AnActOfCreation AFAIK, some clients can block external trackers and block images from loading (because images can have trackers)
I don’t know if it’d benefit you tremendously, but it’s worth the shot imho. but that’s because I love trying out new apps lol
Not for you indeed ! But for me who works on code project through email this is exciting :)
And for people who work in pokitics/administrative stuff, they use a SHIT TON of emails
Not even mentioning people in university
So excited about this! It looks and feels great.
Seems slicker than k9 and a bit speedier.
Downside is it appears using openkeychain is not working for encrypted emails. I fill in the settings but it still won’t show it, even after closing the app and reopening.
Edit- it works now. No idea what I did it didn’t do.
I couldn’t find it on froid
‘You can download Thunderbird Beta on the Google Play Store, or get the latest pre-release version from the Github Releases page.’
It’s just launched today in beta. I’d expect it to be there eventually, but you can grab it from GitHub if you want to try it.
Won’t appear. Mozilla is a bitch about trademarks.
Well, an unbranded build would be perfectly possible, like how “Fennec” is just a build of Firefox. In case they continue to release updates for K-9, that would be an unbranded app right there…
They have said that they will continue to release identical versions of each in the immediate future.
Cool, that seems like the best way to handle this.
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Anyone make the switch from Aquamail?
I’m interested in Thunderbird but I’ve been very happy with aquamail, so no reason to switch
