No, I Will Not Use Gmail (Premium)

Google's decision to kill Inbox means that I'm searching for a new email client. And it will not be Gmail.

This is disappointing.

Google launched Inbox as an alternative way to access a Gmail/G Suite-based email account in 2014. It is available on both web and mobile---e.g. everywhere---and its primary appeal, at least to me, is that it is simpler, cleaner, and easier to use than the bloated Gmail client, in particular on the web. (On mobile, Gmail actually looks a lot like Inbox, albeit it with a red access color instead of Inbox's more pleasant blue.)

I began using Inbox full-time when I made the switch from Penton to BWW Media and we launched Thurrott.com as the replacement for the SuperSite for Windows. I have owned the Thurrott.com domain for years but had only used it for personal reasons. And my primary email account until then was a Hotmail address that dates back almost 20 years.

Moving to my Thurrott.com email address made sense at the time: I had moved it between various systems over the years, including Microsoft's Windows Live Domains, but it was on Gmail (really G Suite) when I signed on with BWW. And BWW also used G Suite. So away we went.

Three years later, I've come to not just like Inbox but to prefer it. That the other half of this equation, Google Calendar is excellent---on both web and mobile---finalized the transition. I've just never looked back. Inbox is literally everything I want from an email client.

But then Google screwed it all up: Google announced yesterday that it will be killing off Inbox at the of March 2019. So I have six months to figure this out.

Yesterday, I took the first obvious step towards this future by reevaluating Gmail on the web. I hadn't used stock Gmail in many years, and I vaguely recalled that Google had recently upgraded it with new features, some of which were inspired by Inbox. Researching this, I see that Google added offline support in May, and has made various recent updates to the mobile app around conversation view and confidential emails.

And so, with a heart full of hope and a head full of more reasonable expectations, I loaded up Gmail on the web.

And. What. The. F@$k.

Gmail on the web is just as ugly, complicated, and convoluted as is Outlook 2016 on Windows. And, when you think about it, that may be the point: Google uses this interface for its G Suite corporate customers too, not just for consumers. The feeling seems to be that more is always better.

With the heavy weight of this terribleness becoming clear to me, I started tooling around with the options. Surely, there is some way to make this thing like cleaner and simpler. More like Inbox. Surely.

There is not.

So I will be making some change in the coming months. This may involve third-party clients, which is tedious to research and test. For now, I've switched to Outlook Mobile on my phone, which actually looks and works a lot like Inbox mobile. And I will reexamine what it's like...