[CLOSED][APP][5.0+] FairEmail - Fully featured, open source, privacy oriented email app

[chris122380]

I am so sad and upset with Google by this news. I purchased Fairemail so I can use the email app I love and enjoy using, rather than to be told by Google I can't use something. It's also the only email app that I haven't had issues with syncing after upgrading to Android 12. The Android 12 problem is probably a Google problem but Fairemail just works. I did send a few emails but the support was fantastic. No other paid product I have purchased from the Play store could compete with that kind of support. No other paid or free product (for that matter) has a well a written help pages and documentation as did Marcel with the GitHub documentation. Any other programmer in here could learn from Marcel's help documents. It is the only open source email program I would trust and now I'm not even sure where I would go if I have to migrate to a different email app

FYI - I first heard about this from a tweet by @ghacks. My first response was to be angry with Google. I cried I was so mad.

 

[nadir husain]

@chris122380 you came from AquaMail I presume since I have seen your posts on the forum. Well do did I! Since yesterday's announcement by Marcel I downloaded AquaMail again and had it running in parallel with FE . Oh no! I was quickly reminded why I switched to FE in the first place. Aqua isnow in the hands of some junior developers( Mobisystems has also dumped it) and they do their work by trial and error. The point of all this is to once again applaud the work Marcel had done and how tragic it would be to see this great app die a premature death!

 

[chris122380]

@chris122380 you came from AquaMail I presume since I have seen your posts on the forum. Well do did I! Since yesterday's announcement by Marcel I downloaded AquaMail again and had it running in parallel with FE . Oh no! I was quickly reminded why I switched to FE in the first place. Aqua isnow in the hands of some junior developers( Mobisystems has also dumped it) and they do their work by trial and error. The point of all this is to once again applaud the work Marcel had done and how tragic it would be to see this great app die a premature death!

Yep, that's me. I pretty much had left Aquamail for Fairemail. It was working fine until most recent updates and then Aquamail broke background sync. I missed a very important email and that's when I decided to dive into Fairemail as my full-time email app and I haven't missed an email sense. The problem with going anywhere else is you'll inherit the exact same problems (bloated, background sync issues, etc). None of these issues exist with Fairemail. Fairemail is also the only email program I know of or could find that supports Tracking protections. It's sad that something unique like this in Fairemail isn't more standard practice but instead you have other email companies that would rather spy on you (but yet they're still allowed in the Google Play store.) So Google will accuse a privacy secure email app for being something it isn't but will allow spyware-based email apps to flourish in the Play store. How the hell does any of that make any sense.

 

[nadir husain]

Yep, that's me. I pretty much had left Aquamail for Fairemail. It was working fine until most recent updates and then Aquamail broke background sync. I missed a very important email and that's when I decided to dive into Fairemail as my full-time email app and I haven't missed an email sense. The problem with going anywhere else is you'll inherit the exact same problems (bloated, background sync issues, etc). None of these issues exist with Fairemail. Fairemail is also the only email program I know of or could find that supports Tracking protections. It's sad that something unique like this in Fairemail isn't more standard practice but instead you have other email companies that would rather spy on you (but yet they're still allowed in the Google Play store.) So Google will accuse a privacy secure email app for being something it isn't but will allow spyware-based email apps to flourish in the Play store. How the hell does any of that make any sense.

Well said! Whatever is happening with FE is nothing short of tragic and the result of an arrogant and haughty tech company. Hope this issue resolves for the sake of all us users and for the sake of Marcel who will get some happiness out if all the effort he has put in.

 

[BillyCoolTomari]

I don't usually comment here, but I heard the news and it's really depressing. I've been using your apps since the good old XPrivacy days, and they've been truly excellent. Thank you so much for all your work over the years. I really hope things work out and this isn't the end.

 

[EuK_V]

I won't be coming back, sorry.

Hi, Marcel,
I hope you change your mind someday.
May God bless you and your loved ones.

 

[YF000]

Sad to see the author (M66B) seem to be defeated by hard life, review pressure and Google policies.

I've been using the app for a few years, admiring its design and philosophy, and contributing its localization, as well as some communication to M66B. In my opinion, the project is amazing, but its development and community maintenance may not be so healthy. While M66B provides as exhaustive FAQs as possible, there doesn't seem to be an active, searchable user discussion community, and users sometimes have to ask the author directly - the author respond quickly, M66B maybe ever enjoy the process, but obviously it also brings great pressure. Even, I first noticed this amazing XDA post, and it doesn't seem to be included anywhere in this project. This also prevented me from sharing opinions or insights about the software, so I was always a user rather than a participant.
In fact, I've also tried reading and refining some code in small amounts and providing it to the author, but the private email exchanges and comments seem less efficient and transparent. This is still a one-person project, although it's open-source code. Other posts have made some suggestions for code structure / community, I hope M66B or anyone can pick it up.

Furthermore, I suggest M66B ignore flippant Play Store reviews as they may not be a user who actually needs it. And build a user community for user support, only provide limited personal support to protect your live. Google Play may be an important source of installation, but for privacy-oriented / loyal users, the third-party sources (GitHub/F-droid/...) may be better or acceptable.
Anyway, thank you for bringing this wonderful software.

 

[Kogam22]

Well, whatever you decide on in the end, thank you for all your efforts. Truly appreciate it.

 

[M66B]

I like to say something about the code quality because there were some comments about this.

The code quality is far from perfect, but on the other hand the app is pretty stable and functional. I refactored stuff rather often, but if the one man army needs to choose between significant rewrites, likely causing bugs and instability, and fixing a know issue when reformatting lists, what is it gonna be? (One of the few known problems)

Any developer would do things differently when starting over. Also, a project like this isn't only about pure code quality. It isn't a lab, but a real world application.

 

[Austinredstoner]

I don't like that fairemail is being discontinued because of Google. Does that mean xprivacy and your other apps are also discontinued as well prior to this.

 

[EngineerMind]

As soon as I have a good answer to the why and how question. I am not sure if there are good answers to these questions.

I can understand you probably have a lot of different feelings going on right now such as frustration, disappointment, etc.

Maybe just step away and ignore everything app related for a while since it's way too much to deal with everything else going on personally.

Then, maybe down the road, slowly re-engage at a pace that you are comfortable with.

...I would like to make just one request, please leave the forum threads and github open so we can try to keep your products going ourselves in the event you decide not to return to developing.

 

[GTrash81]

Stumbled across this thread from another post.
Oh man, screw you Google and all the haters.
I found FairMail, bought it and use it happily.
Don't follow the comments, so I don't know what
the problems are, but probably they are 1st-World-Premium
problems.

Have a nice day, good luck and let's see how long
Fairmail will work, until Google patches something and
the app breaks....

 

[NeO4TrvvGFLay5GJnVfB1IHSs]

I like many other have registered just now to state how much I appreciate your effort over the years.

I like to say something about the code quality because there were some comments about this.

The code quality is far from perfect, but on the other hand the app is pretty stable and functional. I refactored stuff rather often, but if the one man army needs to choose between significant rewrites, likely causing bugs and instability, and fixing a know issue when reformatting lists, what is it gonna be? (One of the few known problems)

Any developer would do things differently when starting over. Also, a project like this isn't only about pure code quality. It isn't a lab, but a real world application.

Yeah, I also saw this comment on HN and the first thing I thought was that "This person has never maintained a FOSS application"

They can talk about code quality all they like, but I doubt they'll ever have the impact your software has for everyday users; using the latest API's or switching to Kotlin doesn't mean anything to the end user. At the end of the day, the only code that matters are the ones that help people solve problems, and both FairEmail and NetGuard has done that for thousands, if not millions, of users. So even if you don't resume development, thanks so much for what you've done so far.

 

[paul-antoine]

Just found out about what happened with Google and installed FairEmail. I found it so excellent (in fact the best e-mail app I've ever had) that I just purchased it in support, I hope in support others will do that too.
I wish Marcel all the very best and hope he will come back in time to his great project.
With great appreciation.

 

[EngineerMind]

One thought would be to go into the Play store developer console and to declare that the app is sending/sharing contact list data.

What about this...

Maybe say in the required disclosure "I am required to inform you that Google believes that this app will uploaded your contact list. However, only Google knows where it is being uploaded to because I am the sole developer of this app and I can guarantee you there there is no code in this app that would cause your contact list to be uploaded anywhere. To prove this, you can download the source code and examine it yourself at (github location)."

 

[_mat_]

I like to say something about the code quality because there were some comments about this.

The code quality is far from perfect, but on the other hand the app is pretty stable and functional. I refactored stuff rather often, but if the one man army needs to choose between significant rewrites, likely causing bugs and instability, and fixing a know issue when reformatting lists, what is it gonna be? (One of the few known problems)

Any developer would do things differently when starting over. Also, a project like this isn't only about pure code quality. It isn't a lab, but a real world application.

Even the same developer would do things differently if he would start again :-D If I look over older code of myself, wtf... Even if you are experienced you nevertheless will improve continuosly. Also the languages itself are moving on providing newer, better functions you did not have before. But you won't review your code again and again. Especially when doing it in your free time. So no need to justify in my opinion. You built a great app and the feedback in this thread proves that right ;-)

 

[emacsomancer]

This is extremely upsetting. Not only was I really impressed with the support model of FairEmail (easy to support the developer financially, in a way that encourages but does not compel), but FairEmail is one of the best email interfaces, not only in terms of open-source, or even in terms of Android or even mobile, but just in general.

Glad that I did support this project (and the dev's other projects). Very saddened by what the developer has been going through and the results of that. (Cue "this is why we can't have nice things".)

 

[M66B]

I don't like that fairemail is being discontinued because of Google. Does that mean xprivacy and your other apps are also discontinued as well prior to this.

XPrivacyLua and NetGuard received only basic maintenance for basically the same reasons already, and they were discontinued yesterday too.

 

[M66B]

I can understand you probably have a lot of different feelings going on right now such as frustration, disappointment, etc.

Maybe just step away and ignore everything app related for a while since it's way too much to deal with everything else going on personally.

Then, maybe down the road, slowly re-engage at a pace that you are comfortable with.

...I would like to make just one request, please leave the forum threads and github open so we can try to keep your products going ourselves in the event you decide not to return to developing.

I mostly feel liberated.

The XDA threads were closed and reopened and the GitHub project were made invisible and restored in archived state and I have no plans to change this.

 

[M66B]

What about this...

Maybe say in the required disclosure "I am required to inform you that Google believes that this app will uploaded your contact list. However, only Google knows where it is being uploaded to because I am the sole developer of this app and I can guarantee you there there is no code in this app that would cause your contact list to be uploaded anywhere. To prove this, you can download the source code and examine it yourself at (github location)."

There is no option for explanations like this. Linking to website where you can download the app too means an automatic removal of an app from the Play store within a few days (happened to NetGuard).