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> I hate Google's mail interface Their IMAP interface is both standards compliant and fully functional. I'm not terribly fond of the Gmail web/native apps eith
by eric_h 10y ago
> I hate Google's mail interface
Their IMAP interface is both standards compliant and fully functional. I'm not terribly fond of the Gmail web/native apps either, so I just don't use them (though I do occasionally hop on the web app when my client isn't searching the email as effectively as google does).
With 2FA it can be a bit more work adding devices, but it's not a deal breaker for me.
- Endy 10y agoI don't download my email. I have a webmail for a reason - I don't want a mail client with all its attendant files gumming up my PC. I moved off Netscape Communicator to webmail because it took up over 40% of my drive, and I've never regretted the decision. And I don't like 2FA either. It's a hassle and never, ever, worth my time or energy. There was one gaming service (I think it was an MMO) that demanded 2FA or bust. I don't use that service and never will.
- eric_h 10y ago> I don't like 2FA either That seems to be a rather dangerous position to hold these days. I personally dislike that googles 2FA is SMS based (unless there's a way to use e.g. Authy with it that I'm unaware of), but still seems that the only way to be reasonably safe is a strong password and 2FA. I'll add that The authy app on the Apple Watch has made 2FA for services that support it rather painless.
- zardeh 10y agoGoogle also allows you to use google authenticator, but I don't believe they allow third party services.
- jsudhams 10y agoGoogle does allow other apps (I think it is still same as GAuth) SASS pass and other authenticators with good. But yes they don't allow other token provides like Yubikey or RSA fobs
- brennen 10y ago> But yes they don't allow other token provides like Yubikey or RSA fobs I think this is incorrect, at least provided you're using Chrome. The implementation was buggy somewhere in the chain the last time I tried it, but it's there.
- lorenzhs 10y agoGoogle is one of the major proponents of U2F, which is based on hardware tokens. Yubikeys support it, either the cheap U2F-only one or a Neo / 4. I use it and it works flawlessly. At the moment, only Chrome implements the required APIs as far as I know, but Mozilla is working on adding it to Firefox.
- lorenzhs 10y agoYou can use any TOTP app you like, they all use the same QR code format. You can even build your own, it's all well documented.
- pugz 10y agoI use 1Password as my 2FA app for Google services. I only set it up relatively recently so maybe support for non-SMS is new. Or region-based?
- lorenzhs 10y agoIt's been there for years. Since ~1yr ago they also support U2F (hardware token based, un-phishable)
- djsumdog 10y agoTheir IMAP implementation is anything but compliant or functional. They implement labels as folders. Every time you use a label, it downloads that message multiple times and puts it into folders. Also when you try to write drafts in Thunderbird for Gmail, it stores them in such a way as each saved draft turns into part of the conversation (WTF?!) It makes conversations totally unreadable. I quite gmail years ago and do not miss their broken IMAP implementation.
- eric_h 10y agoFair enough, I guess it's about differing usecases. The few labels that I do use on gmail are set up such that they are indistinguishable from folders (if they match a filter, they don't go in my inbox, and I don't have any overlapping labels). I also rarely have lingering draft emails, so I guess I've not noticed that particular issue (though I do use Mail.app, not thunderbird). Gmail's imap support has been adequate for me since they introduced it however long ago that was. YMMV Edit: my point about standards compliance for gmail imap was purely about it actually working with third party clients, I've always known that it doesn't conceptually work the same way as a standard imap server.