Google will discontinue the Basic HTML version of its Gmail service in January 2024.
It’s unclear when Google made the decision to end Basic HTML support – news of which can be found in this support page titled “Use the latest version of Gmail in your browser.” Archive.org’s last capture of the page comes from late 2022, and Google’s own cache has not coughed up info that would identify the date of the change.
The Register asked Google when the decision to end Basic HTML was made, and why.
A spokesperson sent us the following statement:
“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.”
Google suggests that not including “full Gmail feature functionality” is the point of the Basic HTML offering. When your correspondent loaded it, Google delivered a warning that it is “designed for slower connections and legacy browsers.”
Intriguingly, when we used Chrome’s Inspect>Network tool to test the HTML page’s load time, it came in at 1200 milliseconds. Full fat Gmail loaded in 700 milliseconds – but then kept loading elements for almost a minute before settling down.
The decision has been criticized by Pratik Patel, who describes himself on Mastodon as “a blind technologist … who finds himself championing #accessibility for fun and necessity.”
“I know many #blind people who use GMail’s HTML view. Not only will they be confused but will be unhappy,” he wrote.
Patel also noted that Google has made Basic HTML view harder to find in recent months – a change he understands now that the feature has been cancelled.
Google is infamous for discontinuing services that – for whatever reasons – don’t meet its goals. Over the years it has killed off favorites like its RSS reader, flops like Wave, projects like Google Code that lost to rival offerings, and invasive ad tech that its peers rejected.
But the Big G has also kept some offerings alive after user uprisings. In 2022, for example, it persisted with the free G Suite legacy edition after fielding many complaints from users who felt they were promised the service would be available in perpetuity.
Google insists it is “committed to making accessibility a core consideration” and lists many accessibility features in Gmail – among them screen reader support and hands-free email.
That’s fine. Thunderbird is excellent, and the Mail app on my phone is lightweight.
Browser UI is irrelevant to me, and I plan to make more Google services irrelevant to myself. That’s what happens when you continue to kill off services like this.
I had Outlook already, then created a proton email, and it came in handy when I decided to stop using Gmail.
Now I don’t even need to do anything, I have already change email service.
Certain States allow you to attach your Gmail to your literal identity. Allowing quick authorization to sensitive information. It’s interesting in concept, but dystopian in application. At least in the United States. Alphabet and the federal government shaking hands is somewhat unsettling.
It’d be great if the federal government invested in proprietary capital instead of just dumping money into Private Corp. I guess that’s capitalism for you, but that’s just getting off topic now.
It’s not about the browser. If you have a really slow connection, normal Gmail doesn’t even load, but HTML Gmail may run very well. They shouldn’t have discontinued it.
Let’s be honest, Gmail, being a Google service, was condemned to have an awful UI which can’t work without loading megabytes of JS into your browser.
The good news are that they still support mail clients, which everyone should be using except for those occasions you’re working from a device you do not own.
The bad news are that Gmail still analyzes your emails in the server side, and uses them to serve you tracking ads and train AI models. So maybe switching providers altogether is a better option for those who have a choice.
Honestly, I think Gmail’s web client is pretty great. It actually has tons of power user features I found very handy in the past (like support for scripting).
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That’s fine. Thunderbird is excellent, and the Mail app on my phone is lightweight.
Browser UI is irrelevant to me, and I plan to make more Google services irrelevant to myself. That’s what happens when you continue to kill off services like this.
I had Outlook already, then created a proton email, and it came in handy when I decided to stop using Gmail. Now I don’t even need to do anything, I have already change email service.
The main reason I cannot get rid of GMail entirely is OAuth. There’s no good alternatives.
I’ve seen many ignorant comments thinking Gmail is only for email. Google is our company’s identity provider. We’re locked in tight.
Certain States allow you to attach your Gmail to your literal identity. Allowing quick authorization to sensitive information. It’s interesting in concept, but dystopian in application. At least in the United States. Alphabet and the federal government shaking hands is somewhat unsettling.
It’d be great if the federal government invested in proprietary capital instead of just dumping money into Private Corp. I guess that’s capitalism for you, but that’s just getting off topic now.
Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. You can just stop using Gmail and still maintain a Google account to use with oauth providers.
There’s also the privacy concern as well.
I usually give login with github/discord/mastodon a priority but if they are not available I just fallback to google
Shame, now it won’t be possible to access Gmail from the Nintendo DS Browser.
Bro you used that too
Can you catch me up to speed?
Back in the day a lot of us didn’t have smart phones or computers. But we did have consoles with Internet.
Nintendo Wii had a browser too. Tits in their 480p glory.
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Is Lynx POP or IMAP compatable? If so, thats done already.
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It’s not about the browser. If you have a really slow connection, normal Gmail doesn’t even load, but HTML Gmail may run very well. They shouldn’t have discontinued it.
My connection is trash. I need HTML Gmail to load it at all in a reasonable amount of time.
I understand you, I’ve been in your position
But to Google you are the smallest %, so small that it’s not even worth maintaining the code
I don’t necessarily think they are right, but it is that way
why be fair to google? they’re literally a trillion dollar company
So they shouldn’t try to monetise as much as they can? I don’t get your point
Awesome to see Google embrace plaintext email! /j
Let’s be honest, Gmail, being a Google service, was condemned to have an awful UI which can’t work without loading megabytes of JS into your browser.
The good news are that they still support mail clients, which everyone should be using except for those occasions you’re working from a device you do not own.
The bad news are that Gmail still analyzes your emails in the server side, and uses them to serve you tracking ads and train AI models. So maybe switching providers altogether is a better option for those who have a choice.
Honestly, I think Gmail’s web client is pretty great. It actually has tons of power user features I found very handy in the past (like support for scripting).
Gmail is slow as fuck on Firefox. And the design also sucks. Just copy outlook like decent email services do.
The last time I used the html version was in the Quest 2 browser. Apperently it can’t handle anything else.