Gmail is Dead and Something New is Replacing It!
There is a better E-Mail Client in the Market
If I had sent this article as an email to a publisher who uses Gmail to read the draft, it would look plain, ugly, and as for its Graphical User Interface… Well, it is bound to make the receiver cry as he gapes at the screen.
The contents of the mail alone would be scanned by Google’s advanced AI detection software to deliver more personalised ads on my next browse.
Privacy Desecrated,
Encroachment Commenced,
My Peace and Seclusion From the Internet Mutilated
Until now, Gmail may have been the most elite player in the SMTP(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), server and mail ecosystem, but there’s a new and more secure mail client that’s about to express its wrath and sever the whole connection.
When email clients discover the full potential of this new challenger, the established providers can kiss their current business models goodbye. Google, Outlook, Apple… if they don’t respond to what’s coming, they’re all toast.
Email is King…..
Forget WhatsApp and Instagram direct messaging and whatever the heck Telegram was trying to do when they made those dreadful messaging features… direct emailing is the most convenient and formal way of sending an important message to people.
According to Statista, as seen in the graph above, Email is clearly not dying; instead it is flourishing. Its growth from 2017 to 2022 is about 15%, reaching up to 4.6 Billion people in 2025!
According to Hubspot,
- 4.2 Billion people check email daily.
- 78% of millennials prefer communications and alerts from businesses to come via email.
- More than 306 Billion emails are sent and received each day.
Therefore, we can conclude that Email is King.
It’s Online
An email client used online? Yup, that’s Gmail!
It takes at least 10 seconds to open up Gmail on my browser, however, a native email client stays open 24/7 so you don’t have to constantly check for mails. Okay, suppose it takes 10 seconds to open Gmail, and I have to open it thrice a day(because I keep closing the tab).
So, 10 x 3 x 365 = 10950 wasted seconds in a year.
Further, 10950/60 = 182.5 wasted minutes in a year. That’s a complete waste of time compared to other native email clients that notifies me when I receive a mail, as well as opens straight on my desktop without wasting any time.
Moreover, imagine that when you hop on your computer one morning to suddenly find that you’ve been locked out of your google account.
You’ve been banned.
It’s not just your email account that you don’t have access to — it’s everything linked to it. Well, this happened to me 2 days ago and it wasn’t pretty.
All your single sign-in google linked accounts on other websites, your google drive, your email 2 factor authentication (including Medium itself, which sends you an email sign in link rather than deal with passwords), your Youtube account, purchases made on Google Play, videos and photos on Google photos.
The list goes on.
It Looks Atrocious!
Ever seen an aesthetic app that has the perfect light and dark mode graphics?
Well, that is the polar opposite of Gmail, and it seems like the mail client was made to discontent users instead of pleasing them!
Just look at it: plain white, chose some horrible background wallpapers and some weird themes that make my eyes water!
The themes you can choose from: well those aren’t any good as well, rather worse. Compare it to all the other email clients in the market, it’s just tremendously underdeveloped!
Fonts, accent colours, weird sidebars and lags are just some of the issues that are often experienced on Gmail.
It just does not look good.
Google Scans your Data!
It is not safe to keep your data on the internet; anywhere on the internet for that matter.
Data leaks, password leaks, not safe enough privacy software are just one of the few reasons that can lead to your identity to be sold in the Black market.
Though you might think of Google as a high end Forbes-500 company with a huge and secure databank; you might just be wrong.
That is why Apple included a major software feature that asks/prompts you to choose whether you would want the app to allow observing your data or not. Though, Google has its own ways of checking for data when you send the mail thorough their servers.
Your email these days isn’t just a point of contact. It’s inextricably linked to your online identity
Don’t believe it can happen to you?
Well, here is a story on Reddit from a user who returned their google purchased phone device.
They returned their phone that was purchased through Google Pay, but due to a putative mix-up in the RMA process, part of their system failed to recognise that the device was returned.
An RMA process is a Return Merchandise Authorization
The subsequent credit card charge back flagged the account as potentially fraudulent causing the subsequent ban. Though we can’t fully verify the authenticity of the story, we can certainly take heed as at the very least a warning sign.
A massive warning sign.
Your online identity shouldn’t have one point of failure. Doubly so if you are conducting your business through a free gmail account where Google can access all your important and confidential data.
So what is the alternative?
Introducing Proton Mail
Proton is privacy by deafult.
That’s their tagline, and let’s just say that it re-assures you. Don’t trust me? Look at all this proof:
With Proton, your data belongs to you, not tech companies, governments, or hackers
Our encrypted services help you fight for a better internet that is secure and private by default.
Their company is solely focused at Privacy, they have even stoked their reputation to be known as a “privacy-focused company.”
Proton Mail tries to use zero-access encryption wherever possible. This helps ensure nobody, not even Proton, can decrypt, access, or share any of your personal information. They don’t serve ads(like Gmail) and can’t share your data with advertisers.
They are based in Switzerland so they are bound to follow their heavy Swiss data protocols.
Moreover, Proton Mail was first created in 2014 by a group of CERN scientists who first created the Internet, and know every nick and cranny of the SMTP servers.
But I feel that the best feature of all would be the:
Easy Switch
Easy switch in Proton Mail uses Google OAuth2 verification to transfer all your emails, contacts, calendars and files to their own server, therefore switching your mail account without losing any data.
Further, this means that Google will no longer be able to observe your data. To complete your Proton setup, they offer something called Proton Drive where you can store your documents(like google drive), Proton VPN and Proton Calendar.
Though, the only drawback of this system would be its price.
But Privacy comes at a price right? The plans are shown below:
You can get it for free, but it would be much more valuable if you take the Mail Plus option.
Logins
If you use your Google account to sign in to accounts used over the internet, it would benefit you if you try and wean them off overtime.
Using Third Party Password Managers would benefit you:
- LastPass
- KeePass
- 1Password
- Dashlane
- Bitwarden
Some of them are free and some would cost you a minimal price. Further, if you own a Mac, you can use Apple’s own iCloud Password Manager to store passwords and usernames.
It might seem as a hassle at first, but you will get used to it soon enough.
Trust me.
So, What’s Gmail’s Options?
At this point Gmail can solely do one thing. Stop scanning for data to give unnecessary personalised ads to users.
They have everything they need
- An excellent brand Image
- The most skilled employees in the world
- The most market share in the email industry
All that’s left for Gmail is to transition to a world where they don’t invade users’ privacy, and use a better and more efficient process to get to know how to deliver personalised advertisements to users.
Proton Mail is rising fast, but still, Gmail has the potential to be bounce back…it may take a little longer than expected, but I know for sure that they have the capability and the capital to make it happen. They can make their own Secure Send Private mail service and hence don’t maraud users’ personal data.
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Peace!
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