In the social network X, a message has gone viral that Google will shut down Gmail in August this year, proving it with a screenshot of an allegedly official letter from Google. Of course, this is fake, but Google has killed the basic HTML view of Gmail, as it planned to do in January.
The fake message reads:
We’re reaching out to you to share some important news about Gmail. After years of connecting millions of people around the world, enabling seamless communication and creating countless connections, Gmail’s journey is coming to an end.
this is insane. I hate this company pic.twitter.com/pXBRezPAyX
— Daniel (@growing_daniel) February 22, 2024
Gmail is an extremely popular product with more than 1.8 billion active users, and it is also associated with Android operating system accounts. Therefore, such a throw-in is absurd. The fake screenshot has been viewed more than 1 million times on X, Gizmodo reports. It appears to be a photoshopped version of a message that appeared last year informing users that Gmail’s basic HTML look was becoming a thing of the past.
The HTML version of the mail service, while lacking many features such as chat, spell check, search filters, keyboard shortcuts, and complex formatting, had some advantages in terms of speed and performance on very old devices. And especially with a weak connection, when there is no possibility to download unnecessary animations and interfaces. The decision is also criticized from the point of view of accessibility of the service for people with visual impairments — many such users use just the simplified version.
At the moment, the official Google support page suggests using the latest version of Gmail in your browser. If the browser supports it, Gmail automatically opens in the latest version without Basic HTML, but “with the latest features and security updates.”
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