Starting next year, Google will discontinue its Basic HTML Gmail. With the simplified interface, users of officially unsupported browsers and old systems can also access the webmail service. From January 2024, Gmail will automatically load the standard view instead – Google leaves open which options remain for users who previously relied on the alternative view.
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The provider announced the step very briefly in a support document, which is intended to help users whose Gmail interface does not load correctly. Google does not give an official reason, but points to the functions missing from Basic HTML. Among other things, the standard view offers the recently revised chat, spelling correction, import and export of contacts and text formatting of emails.
The discontinued Basic HTML Gmail joins a long list of Google services that have been similarly canceled from a user perspective – with the RSS reader as probably the most inglorious example. The dispute over the legacy G Suite showed that user complaints can have an effect: it remained available to private users despite the initial requirement to obtain a commercial license.
(fo)