In this case, it appears that Gmail's AI search tool will be optional.
Until they quietly turn it on by default after the initial news had cooled down
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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What if it's always on and only available to the user if you turn it on? What if it's always generating info for Google and there's nothing you can do but stop using Google products?
Gmail's search and filters have been annoying for some time now. This feels like an overpowered bandaid to that problem
"Annoying" is extremely generous. I have to use it for work and it's a fucking nightmare. I can type in the exact text of the subject of an email and it's nowhere to be found.
I dont even mind this too much yet still I want to switch off from gmail. If google decided to suspend my account for some reason I would be completely fucked. Even if you love google you still should switch off from using their services because there is a chance you might lose access to them in the future if this world goes even more off its rocker.
Aye, I have looked through this too: https://european-alternatives.eu/alternative-to/gmail
Unfortunately every service seems to have something going on that I dont like or they dont have something I want. Maybe I should just be less discerning. It doesnt help that switching is a lot of effort and bother.
I took a look at disroot but i heard about that too that there are some things about it that make it not useable to me, like them storing the mails unencrypted apparently. So that one became not an option.
Proton might be good, but after everything i have heard about that too i fear it might develop more problems later which would just have me switch again.
Tuta might be good, but I have heard about that one too that they like sending ads about their services you cant opt out so that kind of attitude doesn't sit well with me. Not even google does that. That also has be worrying they might start enshittifying the service at some point and maybe make the free version so awful i'd have to switch again.
Many others can't be used for free at all, which is quite important thing for service this crucial. I wish eu itself would create some email service instead of having to rely on corporations that might change their mind about anything the moment it becomes more profitable to them. Though that one would probably be very austere and definitely not have aliases as option.. Why must everything it related be so annoying nowdays.
Kmail on your list seems decent. I cant seem to find a way to make account for it, only to get the client for managing other accounts unless i'm misunderstanding something.
Yes, all these email services want you to pay up for them. I think this is the price tag for privacy.
I have switched to Mailbox org a couple of years ago. I had a freemail provider before that. Unfortunately, this providers' data got leaked, and therefore I got pwned, luckily only resulting into a tsunami of spam. The entry-tier with Mailbox is 1 € per month (= 12 € per year) which is compareably cheap in my opinion. Of course, it depends on what features you desire - more features cost more money. They also offer a free trial for 30 days (but it is wise to start the free trial at the begin of a month, as far as I recall).
The process of switching the email provider took me at least 6 months, where both the old and the new email adress have to exist simulatiously.
If you need to register quickly to an online service, i can recommend Temp-Mail org. Its free, but you need to have the tab opened for the registration process, as all data (including the free temporary email adress) will be deleted once the tab is closed. I used this service to register with my home instance, because back then I didn't want to expose my real email adress.
Ai in email. But why?
Solution looking for a problem
I could be wrong, but I believe most AI isn't really AI as we imagine it. It's a LLM (language learning model). The more you interact with it the better it gets
Enabling this feature will probably require you to agree to Google AI training on your emails.
I'm sure you've already agreed by continuing to use Gmail.
Even if you haven't they have been using your email for all kinds of purposes the whole time. Training is just the most recent.
Gmail is a messaging platform that optionally supports email, change my mind.
Gemini is already in my mother's gmail, so far she's avoided the bloody thing.
I already to to DuckDuckGo to search for medical stuff and other things I don't need Google knowing. Their search results aren't bad especially compared to current Google.