Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Google ending Basic HTML support for Gmail in 2024

Understandably they're saying little about it publicly, but word is getting around that Google's fast, super-compatible Basic HTML mode for Gmail will be removed in a few short months. "We’re writing to let you know that the Gmail Basic HTML view for desktop web and mobile web will be disabled starting early January 2024. The Gmail Basic HTML views are previous versions of Gmail that were replaced by their modern successors 10+ years ago and do not include full Gmail feature functionality."

There are also reports that you can't set Basic HTML mode now either. Most of you who want to use it probably already are, but if you're not, you can try this, this, this, this or even this to see if it gets around the front-end block.

Google can of course do whatever they want, and there are always maintenance costs to be had with keeping old stuff around — in this case, for users unlikely to be monetized in any meaningful fashion because you don't run all their crap. You are exactly the people Google wants to get rid of and doing so is by design. As such, it's effectively a giant "screw you," and will be a problem for those folks relying on this for a fast way to read Gmail with TenFourFox or any other limited system. (Hey, wanna buy a Pixel 8 to read Gmail?)

Speaking of "screw you," and with no small amount of irony given this is published on a Google platform, I certainly hope the antitrust case goes somewhere.

3 comments:

  1. I ran into some hardcore Product Expert negativity on Google's Help Community when I questioned why there were no easy to see announcements from Google about this issue, as well as noting there were already problems associated with the loading of the Basic HTML in September.

    And I appreciate seeing this notice on your site.

    By the way, would anyone wish for me to post a link to that thread on the Google site? Because of some past history I have with Google, they hadn't deleted it up to the last time I checked, maybe a few days or so ago.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seems to be permanently disabled now...

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