12 ms·

G Suite free edition no longer available starting July 1, 2022

134 points by pavanyara 5y ago

Someone1234 5y ago
Only strange part is that I still haven't been emailed about this massive change. It also doesn't appear in the Admin Center.
- FfejL 5y ago
  Same! I can only assume it's some kind of rolling announcement and they haven't gotten to us yet.
- Operyl 5y ago
  I didn't get an email either, but given I had to migrate a few organizations together I didn't want to take the bet on if I was affected or not. They're providing free through July, and half off through July 23rd 2023 to me, and I don't mind paying the costs personally, it was always a matter of just not having the time to migrate various accounts together.
- blakesterz 5y ago
  I'm in the same boat. I have no idea what to think. Maybe somehow some of us are still getting it free? Or somehow they forgot to email us and we're suddenly going to lose access?
  - Macha 5y ago
    Wonder if it's a region by region notification. I'm in the EU. I did get an email from google last year that they were updating my account region from undefined to Ireland...
- wccrawford 5y ago
  I didn't get emailed yet either. I had already been thinking about moving my email anyhow, though, so I've done that now, just in case.
  - mxuribe 5y ago
    Curiou, where did you end up migrating to? (I'm likely going to move to zoho...but am always interested to know other options.)
    - wccrawford 5y ago
      I chose purelymail.com after seeing a discussion about it here on HN. Fastmail was my other option that I was thinking about, but Purely was a lot cheaper, and I don't actually use those email addresses much yet.
      - mxuribe 5y ago
        Oh wow, I don't recall ever hearing about purelymail.com. i will check them out; thanks!
    - IMSAI8080 5y ago
      I was going to go Zoho. All I care about as a premium service is reliable email with a custom domain. This looks like it delivers it for either free or £10 a year (depending on requirements). Much cheaper than Google's offer.
      - mxuribe 5y ago
        Same here, i have little to no use for any of google's other services...i just need solid email service with my custom domain name. My early tests with zoho show it to be pretty good. Also, i follow @kevq , and he seems to be happy with zoho: https://kevq.uk/reasons-why-zoho-mail-is-better-than-gmail/ https://kevq.uk/reasons-why-zoho-mail-is-better-than-gmail/ Cheers!
- tyingq 5y ago
  When you log in, do the terms of service links lead to this page? https://workspace.google.com/terms/standard_terms.html https://workspace.google.com/terms/standard_terms.html It would be interesting if it didn't, which could suggest there's a different free product. "Google Workspace for Nonprofits", for example, seems to be unaffected by this change, and still free.
  - nmcfarl 5y ago
    Not the grandparent - but I to have not received an email - and mine terms link does not go there. It goes to this: https://admin.google.com/terms/apps/1/5/en/standard_terms.html https://admin.google.com/terms/apps/1/5/en/standard_terms.ht...
    - daveloyall 5y ago
      Where is the link you are clicking? When I click "Program Policies" on the bottom of my personal-domain Gmail web interface, I get this: https://www.google.com/gmail/about/policy/ https://www.google.com/gmail/about/policy/ and when I click "Terms of Service" on the lower left of the Admin console, I get this: https://admin.google.com/ac/home?tos=true&authuser=2 https://admin.google.com/ac/home?tos=true&authuser=2
    - tyingq 5y ago
      Ah, but it does say "Google Workspace (Free) Agreement", so it seems like exactly the product in question.
- pen2l 5y ago
  I think the admin account is getting mailed. And uhmmm, that's my issue, I don't remember what even the account name of my GSuite admin is... much less the password.
  - echelon 5y ago
    Same. In my book this qualifies as insufficient notice. Until Google mails me mitigation strategies, what can I do? Google doesn't really understand what a lot of folks are even using this stupid product for (custom email domains and that's it).
    - b112 5y ago
      s/understand/care/ They don't care. At all. You are the product, not the customer. Why inform you of anything? Google does this all. the. time. If you use any google product, expect to lose it without a moment's notice, no recourse, and tough beans if you don't like it.
      - b112 5y ago
        Extra info I was not aware of: https://www.androidpolice.com/google-gsuite-free-legacy-class-action-investigation/ https://www.androidpolice.com/google-gsuite-free-legacy-clas... Apparently, all purchases, etc vanish. Or are not transferable at least. It is a little unclear. I say Google is uncaring, but just wow. Wow.
  - kevincox 5y ago
    I am the admin account for my org and didn't get anything.
  - teejmya 5y ago
    From the FAQ on their site: If the administrator left the company, can a user become an admin? Yes. Current users can ask to become an administrator on the account by completing this form. Users will be required to prove domain registration ownership by creating a custom CNAME or TXT record. If the domain registration verification is successful and none of the existing administrators object, the user will be promoted to the super administrator role.
- teejmya 5y ago
  Same, no email about this. Time to move anyway.
andygcook 5y ago
Previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29996432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29996432
- dijit 5y ago
  It keeps popping up on the top page but due to comments/votes it gets ratio’d off the front page. I think it’s worth sticking this thread so it doesn’t vanish @dang
  - johncena33 5y ago
    I think there should be a separate section on HN just for Google related discussions, given that the amount of threads pop up everyday on HN.
- samwillis 5y ago
  See also: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1642784952&dateRange=custom&dateStart=1642507200&query=G%20Suite https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1642784952&dateRange=custom&... I think the number of times this is being submitted/discussed shows both how many people are effected and how annoyed they are.
1-6 5y ago
Time to unload domains I was keeping around just because of G Suite free tier.
- mindslight 5y ago
  I too put more effort into keeping my grandfathered account than I ever got out. In my case it was my login getting trapped up by extra "security" to verify from a "previous device" when all such "devices" were long gone browser sessions, and having to go through the support bog to regain access. It always seemed like GApps on a custom domain would be good for something. But whenever I looked none of the services were compelling. Other side of the lock in looking glass, I guess. Given the dilemmas I'm seeing other people face (eg family got used to gmail on the domain, and either having to walk everyone through migration, or just give up and pay the Danegeld), I'm glad I dodged that bullet! About the only Google service I rely on is Voice, which would be easy enough to move except I don't know any other VOIP providers that are as a good as being accepted for snake oil 2FA and the like. I think Google gets a pass due to Project Fi. Does anyone have any recommendations? The best option running seems to be getting a paygo SIM, pop it in a stationary cell modem, and use that for snake oil 2FA. but shrug
- HeavenFox 5y ago
  I had a domain that I let expire, but the associated Google Apps remained valid and I continued to use it
  - ayewo 5y ago
    Eventually, Google will ask you to revalidate your ownership of the domain once their systems detect that the domain has expired. Once this happened to me, I had to re-register the expired domain.
malinens 5y ago
Shameless plug: https://www.inbox.eu https://www.inbox.eu We have very basic free tier (allowed to send up to 3 emails per day for each mailbox if mobile phone is validated). We haven't deleted any validated domain for 15 years and will not do it in the future. We have also option to import all your mailboxes from gmail with google admin credentials.
- drcongo 5y ago
  I just tried to sign up for this after my failure to set up iCloud email, but the signup screen tells me my 100 character random password is weak and the continue button doesn't do anything. Starting to think I've been cursed by Google.
  - drcongo 5y ago
    OK, I've passed that hurdle by using a much weaker password, but now I'm in, I've paid for five users, and I've validated my domain, it won't let me create any users. When I click on the Users & Inboxes section it tells me "The minimum requirements to create new users are HTML or TXT validation" and right under that it shows my TXT record as validated. And I got several emails from you telling me that it was validated.
    - malinens 5y ago
      Hi. I will check password and validation issues in monday morning. You can try to click validate (Recheck validation) button manually if there is problem with domain validation by CRON
    - malinens 5y ago
      I found the issue: we had only 32 char limit for passwords which is quite silly nowadays as password are always hashed. We have removed this limitation and soon will release the change in prod
      - drcongo 5y ago
nannal 5y ago
Have google given any insight at all as to what will happen to users purchases and so forth? Is it fair to assume that we either pay up or lose access to that which was purchased? In addition does this mean @gmail.com users should consider whether or not they could be subject to the same unexpected alteration regarding their own accounts?
- amf12 5y ago
  Based on comments on other threads it looks like just the email will be affected and users won't lose access to the account and purchases.
  - sct202 5y ago
    It's pretty bad messaging that Google didn't spell out that out or anything else with what happens if you don't want to upgrade to paid G Suite on the linked page. The only thing they have is a link to takeout which implies to me that everything will be wiped if you don't upgrade. I'm always shocked at how badly they fumble consumer messaging.
anthropodie 5y ago
I mentioned below comment in another thread[0] some time back and I think it's relevant here too Three months ago I picked up new hobby: Self Hosting. It has been an amazing ride. I learned a lot and I also get peace of mind knowing I am in control of my data. I understand that there is no self-hosted alternative for certain SaaS services but I think that will change as more and more people choose to be in control of their data. A good place to start [1] [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30021404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30021404 [1]: https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted
- jaywalk 5y ago
  Self-hosting is great, but self-hosting email is generally nothing but a world of hurt. That's the one thing I would always leave to an established company.
  - bshipp 5y ago
    My experience as well. Self host email if you want most of your messages to end up in spam...that's even if your ISP allows a self-hosted email server on their network. Read the fine print first. But pretty much everything else is super fun to self-host, especially if you get comfortable with docker and reverse proxies like nginx.
  - pushrax 5y ago
    Agreed, I self hosted for many years and eventually gave it up. Maintaining high IP trust is tricky. A fun hack is to run a captcha-free fake forum and allow random bot signups to generate outbound mail volume and trust.
    - Macha 5y ago
      I imagine this could backfire if you get reported as spam by people who's email addresses bots have used.
  - sgt 5y ago
    Been self hosting email since 2000. Very little maintenance. I lower risk by having less than 5 actual accounts, and of course normal anti spam measures.
xoa 5y ago
The lack of clarity is yet another irritating part of this. Like others, still no email for me. I've been reading that there will be a more gentle onramp than this seems to indicate, where those who "transition to paid" get one more free year, and then another year at 50% off. So anyone really tied in who wants more time before jumping ship that could be useful, but it'd be nice to actually have that all laid out officially in a mail. So would an official transition method to personal. I submitted a link to https://www.39digits.com/migrate-g-suite-account-to-a-personal-google-account https://www.39digits.com/migrate-g-suite-account-to-a-person... (2017) with a few notes [0] earlier today which seems to still mostly work. But the lack of purchase transfer means the pain will vary massively. Those of us who only used it as one of many possible custom domain email systems purely for old school client based IMAP email of course have the easiest smoothest pass. Jumping to something nice like MXroute or Migadu pretty much covers it (though I wish they had some sort of burst send pricing or option) and is smooth enough. Calendars and the like aren't bad either, and there are plenty of generic online storage options. At the opposite end are those with thousands of dollars or more in purchases tied to the account, or massive use of other services. As of right now they seem really screwed. As much as anything the sheer lazy shoddiness of this change is the irritating bit. I don't begrudge them a bit charging for a decent service, or cancelling offerings even. It might be dirt cheap but it's not free and they're offering some value. Ideally they'd have a basic paid tier for non-money making usage, and indeed that is missed in the brave new subscription world in general, but it is what it is. But it's just plain unprofessional not to even notify broad swaths of people, to leave open all sorts of questions about details, to not have any kind of purchase transfer for those who depended upon it, etc. The should be law mandating the ability to transfer purchases between accounts within the same service as a basic minimal floor, and that at least is not a unique Google problem in the slightest. Seems more the rule than the exception for digital software stores of all kinds. Going between services is reasonably more complicated, but within the same one shouldn't be impossible. ---- 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30023769 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30023769
tooltower 5y ago
Why does this send me to a login page? I was expecting a public announcement of some sort
- ihuman 5y ago
  You don't need to login if you use this link: https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120 https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120
gsuiteanon 5y ago
For anyone else frustrated by the vague mercurial umbrella language surrounding "GSuite/Workspaces/GApps"[1] and who this announcement applies to: > Users of Gmail who retain the "@gmail.com" domain suffix and have free Google accounts that give them Calendar, Drive, Docs and so on will not be affected — at least for now. [2] > This change applies only to those people, often in families or small businesses, who have been using a Google service that gave them free custom domain names and associated email addresses. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Workspace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Workspace [2] https://www.tomsguide.com/news/g-suite-free-shutdown https://www.tomsguide.com/news/g-suite-free-shutdown
- Macha 5y ago
  That article makes it sound like Google is paying for your domain registration. To be clear, it let you use your own (purchased elsewhere, though that could be Google Domains) domain for gmail. Also in the time since signups for the free tier closed, it's grown a load of business-y features too.
nrdgrrrl 5y ago
drcongo 5y ago
I've been trying to switch to iCloud email today, but apparently you need to set up an @icloud.com email address before you can use your own domain, and every single thing I've tried I get back a "This address is taken" message, even with entirely random strings [0]. They also have a 21 character limit, just to make it harder. [0] https://twitter.com/drcongo/status/1484489810932862982 https://twitter.com/drcongo/status/1484489810932862982
- frou_dh 5y ago
  Not the best example because QWERTY keyboard mashing happens at scale, and collides plenty!
- idiot900 5y ago
  I set up my @icloud.com email address on my iPhone. It suggests available alternatives. Once you migrate your own domain, you can just use that instead, and never have to use the @icloud.com address for anything externally visible.
  - drcongo 5y ago
    I followed the instructions for setting it up on iPhone and iPad too but there’s no option to switch it on there on either device. If I search for it in settings, it shows up in the results but tapping that takes me to the place where it should be. https://twitter.com/drcongo/status/1484592787634937858 https://twitter.com/drcongo/status/1484592787634937858
- pfg 5y ago
  I've had this issue before - some combination of relaunching System Preferences, toggling the "iCloud Mail" checkbox and smashing "OK" repeatedly eventually made it work.
conanite 5y ago
While this is annoying to many of us, if it diminishes the general public expectation that that online services should be free and subsidised by advertising/marketing/related services, that would be good news. I'm not particularly optimistic about Google though, as they can charge for their services and continue the whole data-gathering game...
zombielinux 5y ago
So for those of us that got in this a decade ago, and have been running an entire family on it, what should be the chosen migration path? I've already got nextcloud hosted locally, and could easily add calendar support. The missing piece of the puzzle is email, and how mad android devices are going to get when their "google" email address no longer points to a google service.
- mgiampapa 5y ago
  Personally, I will lilely setup an on-prem Exchange instance and start mirroring content, but its a tool I happen to know well. My real plan is to wait for enough pain at Google by other nerdy employees to either solve the political or technical issues migrating out, or for this policy change to go away. I'll have my bags packed, but I still have hope that July is far enough away to not have to turn out the lights behind me.
  - zombielinux 5y ago
    I'm of the opinion that if they're willing to do a halfassed implementation like this now, they can walk it back and try again later after the initial shock has worn off. The trust that the product will remain is gone. I guess I need to start packing my bags too.
hefferbub 5y ago
I use this service for my whole family (5 adults) so to continue would cost me $30 per month forever. Sux. Moving email service is not such a big deal, but we have hundreds of Google Docs files to try to transfer. My research indicates this is a laborious process.
- dddddaviddddd 5y ago
  I'm not looking forward to migrating Google Photos and YouTube playlists.
  - tomjen3 5y ago
    Google takeout makes both surprisingly easy.
- dheera 5y ago
  0. Create a folder in Google Docs 1. Move all your shit into that one folder 2. Share folder with your @gmail account 3. In your @gmail account, make a copy of all the files in your shared folder into the parent directory. No need to download and re-upload.
- tomjen3 5y ago
  Can't you export them via Google Takeout?
komadori 5y ago
Many essentially ordinary Google account holders were incentivised to convert their accounts into domain (now G Suite) accounts for e-mail purposes. However, this has always had adverse consequences because many Google services don't support domain accounts and there is no way to undo the conversion (see https://support.google.com/a/thread/129862070/wind-up-organization-but-keep-accounts-how?hl=en https://support.google.com/a/thread/129862070/wind-up-organi... ). This just burdens those users further. The failure of Google to offer a way out of this trap means it must be politically and/or technically difficult. I used to work at Google a few years ago and I can substantiate that everything is politically difficult and I've seen enough of the way domain accounts were implemented to believe it could be technically difficult too.
- CydeWeys 5y ago
  +1 to it being technically difficult. I think it's a Gordian knot or different systems that's too entangled to ever cut.
  - hendersoon 5y ago
    Google already has a mechanism to convert EDU accounts to standard gmail accounts. So most of the work is already done, it would just need to be tested, UI and docs written, etc.
    - Johnie 5y ago
      After spending years at Google, the one question you need to ask for these types of "features" is who is going to get promoted for it? It is such a promo-driven product development culture.
    - hackmiester 5y ago
      I work at a university. How do I do this?
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Well, they do have the option to simply leave it as they promised to do originally.
brechmos 5y ago
For the many families who have used GSuites for the past years, I would love to see a $3 / month / user, maximum of 5-10 users. I am stuck in the same boat as many others who created it for the family 10+ years ago and now am going through how to move each service (GMail, Drive, Keep, Photos, YouTube etc etc) to a plain Gmail account. I have most of it worked out, but it is going to take a lot of time getting 5 people migrated. Sigh.
- turtlebits 5y ago
  FWIW, I see an offer in my account for $3 month for a year from July 2022 - July 2023 (after the free migration period (now until July).
- slivanes 5y ago
  I'm in the same situation as you but I'm undecided, I might still pay the $6/m per user price. If I do so I will be disappointed in myself for paying the danegeld for the convenience. One tactic I am contemplating is using the Cloudflare Email Forwarder (https://www.cloudflare.com/apps/email-forwarding https://www.cloudflare.com/apps/email-forwarding) - this way I can keep all the custom domain email addresses and groups/mailing-lists and redirect them to the new personal gmail accounts. Only problem is that email replies will originate from the new personal addresses.
  - freedomben 5y ago
    Use https://forwardemail.net/ https://forwardemail.net/ . With Gmail You can send from the alias.
  - stickfigure 5y ago
    > Only problem is that email replies will originate from the new personal addresses. You can configure a regular gmail account to send from the custom domain. Visit: Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Send mail as You'll have to confirm ownership of the alternate email address, but it works fine. Even if the alternate email address is associated with a Gsuite domain.
mongol 5y ago
Have not looked extensively into alternatives but AWS WorkMail looks interesting. Not significantly cheaper but looks like a more predictable option. With Google you never know what is around the corner, I feel.
elpocko 5y ago
If you want to set up a PVS to handle email for you - what route would you recommend? Is it still sendmail.cf?
- 0x0000000 5y ago
  Assuming you meant VPS, the biggest pain is that these cheap VPS cycle through IP addresses so frequently you're almost guaranteed to get an address on your box that is blacklisted, so all your outgoing mail is ending up in the recipients' spam box, if it gets there at all. That said, I've been using https://mailinabox.email/ https://mailinabox.email/ on a $2/mo VPS for about a year, for specific low volume e-mail, and I haven't had too much trouble.
  - elpocko 5y ago
    > Assuming you meant VPS Yes, of course. How embarrassing. I already have a VPS for many years and it didn't change IP addresses ever. I need a simple way to make it my email server when I have to get away from Google.
    - 0x0000000 5y ago
      In that case, I can say mail-in-a-box is easy, however it does work kind of like an appliance and expects that the server is only being used for mail-in-a-box. You could move whatever's on your VPS now to a new one, and then put mail-in-a-box on the old one that's had the consistent IP? Alternatively, you could set up inbound forwarding to a personal e-mail (most registrars include free e-mail forwarding IME -- if yours doesn't, transfer it over to Namecheap), and then use an SMTP service for outbound mail from your domain (you could use Mailgun, SMTP.com, and many others). All of your inbound mail will be free, and if you find that you need to respond with your domain, you'll be paying way less than $6/mo for your outgoing.
A4ET8a8uTh0 5y ago
Odd question since I am clearly missing something. Is standalone gmail affected by this?
- Macha 5y ago
  If your account is foo@gmail.com, you're fine. You just have a regular consumer account. If your account is foo@mydomain.com, but gmail doesn't handle your mail and you're unable to access admin.google.com and you signed up for your own account rather than having it created by an employer or educational institute, then you're probably fine. You have a regular consumer account, but not at the gmail domain. If your account is foo@mydomain.com and gmail _does_ handle your mail, you are impacted by this. Or if you originally set it up as some form of gsuite or workspace or google apps for your domain account (you'll know if you did).
Daegalus 5y ago
I made my move a year or so ago. moved my email to go through improvmx.com setup all my domains and aliases to Gmail accounts and pay the $9 a month for smtp from them too. setup everything to go to Gmail and my outbound to go through the smtp servers. works great! i can switch providers as I please and every user can use their preferred provider. my mom likes outlook.com so her email goes there instead of Gmail. if I want to switch to proton, I can change just my own and move it there. I still use Google but moved all my stuff to consumer googlw with Gmail. Only thing I lost was Google Android apps purchases. Movies could be moved through MoviesAnywhere with some
cientifico 5y ago
Is there any way to migrate one "google for your domains" account to a @gmail.com account? I am looking on transferring: * Google maps location history (have it there since 2009). * Google photos of all the family accounts + plus partner sharing. * Google drive * Gmail * Google extra storage (that I pay already for). As far as I know, there are no way to migrate cleanly the data. Only crappy ways if possible at all.
- hacker_newz 5y ago
  I'm in the same spot. The only option I've found is to export via Takeout, but there's no way to import the dump.
- Hamuko 5y ago
  Profitable enough to kill legacy plans, not profitable enough to provide any kind of support.
hartator 5y ago
I am paying a subscription for extra GBs in one of these legacy “free” plans. (Remember they reduced GBs not so long ago?) I wonder what happen to my account.
oaiey 5y ago
Does outlook meanwhile have a free tier for custom domain? Same boat like everyone when it comes to the family usage.
p0d 5y ago
Get the users, then figure out how to bill them is getting a bit old now. To try and migrate my email I just bought a Hetzner Webhosting package for 1.9 euros a month for my custom domain. There is an option during the order to use your own domain but leave the registration/dns settings where they are. I'm now trying to figure out how use a subdomain on my current registrar to test the Hetzner mail. Currently the default mx is G Suite Free. If all goes well this may be my migration path from Google. I'm grateful for what I have had for free from Google but I am weary of their killing stuff.
- darkwizard42 5y ago
  This feels a little dramatic, no? You had an absolutely free service built on top of ad revenue. Now that free service has to pay for itself (due to investor or executive pressure). They are charging what is arguably around the same price point as alternatives with high feature parity. Google isn't "killing" anything, they are just asking users to start paying for it. Perhaps that loses them some users, but they are clearly after something else here (revenue, maybe they have data on how paid users behave differently, perhaps spam/bad actors are a concern on the free plan, idk)
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Sorry, but no. Google clearly advertised this as 'free forever'. This is on them.
  - jorl17 5y ago
    Still serving ads, though, no?
    - filoleg 5y ago
      As far as I know, Google Workspace (formerly GSuite) doesn't serve ads[0]. 0. https://workspace.google.com/learn-more/security/security-whitepaper/page-6.html#no-advertising https://workspace.google.com/learn-more/security/security-wh...
  - Macha 5y ago
renewiltord 5y ago
It's the min 3 users package that's annoying me. Looks like I need to go through a reseller to have a 1 user package. Also iffy if my Google Fi etc. will work or if I have to pay extra.
- amimetic 5y ago
  Is there really a minimum of 3? It seems to offer a "Just me" option. I also noticed it seems to include something equivalent to a standard zoom subscription so this whole thing might save me money! PS A lot of the comparison tables etc are confusing and in past I noticed (I'm in UK) the offer details vary by country.
  - renewiltord 5y ago
    Pebkac I had 3 users in the account
TacticalCoder 5y ago
Shoot! I've got one tied to a really cool five letters dot com I own since forever. It changed names I don't know how many times ("Google apps for domain" ?, "G Suite" now "Google Workspace" and I don't know how many other names). Heck, I had since back when you could switch the free ones from one domain to another one. Then they tied it to the domain. It's been a good ride. I take I'll fork out the 5 EUR / month or so for the basic plan. Still a bit meh.
TrueDuality 5y ago
I've been using this as my primary personal domain when Google was encouraging normal users to switch to this. For the last half decade this has included the account associated with my personal Android purchases. It sounds like there is no migration path to keep these without paying the extortion... At the very least I've been unable to find anything about it. I have fiber and cell service associated with this account. What happens to those?
- jdofaz 5y ago
  I don't know about fiber or cell, but I was able to keep access to my purchases after canceling the legacy subscription and replacing it with "Cloud Identity Free Edition" subscription.
  - TrueDuality 5y ago
    Thanks for that, definitely puts part of my solution at ease. The other services worst case scenario I'll have to cancel and resubscribe to which will be annoying but at least I don't loose my purchases.
thecrumb 5y ago
I would gladly pay something which aligns with why I started using this in the first place - an easy way to keep my family members connected. I wish they had an inexpensive 'family' or 'personal' plan instead of everything focused on business. But it's been obvious for awhile now - the old 'do no evil' Google is long gone. Long live profits and ads and screw everything else.
- jdc0589 5y ago
  I don't think this change is remotely related to the "do no evil" bit, but I do agree it sucks.
- Hamuko 5y ago
  Google One is inexpensive, but if you have your own domain, in Google's world you cannot be anything but a business and therefore cannot get anything other than business plans.
dark-star 5y ago
Does that mean that the free "Google Docs", "Google Sheets" etc. will no longer be available then? Or is "GSuite" something else? I haven't been able to figure this one out with certainty...
- tpaulin 5y ago
  I'm wondering the same because I thought "GSuite" stopped being free years ago.
- Macha 5y ago
  Docs/Sheets/etc haven't been announced to be going paid or unavailable for regular google accounts and that's a bigger shit storm whenever they try it. GSuite/Workspace accounts are something different to just having access to these services which you have if your account came from your school/employer or if you ever signed up to the product that was named at various times: * Gmail for your Domain * Google Apps for your Domain * Google Apps Free Edition * Google Apps (free tier) * GSuite * Google Workspace
noja 5y ago
Real link (no login required): https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120 https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120
- 4cao 5y ago
  The original link for this submission is truly amazing. I guess it will eventually be changed, so to preserve it for posterity: https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?passive=1209600&continue=https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl%3Den%26article_url%3Dhttps://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl%253Den%26product_context%3D2855120%26product_name%3DUnuFlow%26trigger_context%3Da&followup=https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl%3Den%26article_url%3Dhttps://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl%253Den%26product_context%3D2855120%26product_name%3DUnuFlow%26trigger_context%3Da&hl=en https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?passive=1209600&con... URL #1: https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?passive=1209600&continue=<URL> https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?passive=1209600&con... Redirecting to URL #2: https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&article_url=<URL> https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&arti... Redirecting to URL #3: https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl=en&product_context=2855120&product_name=UnuFlow&trigger_context=a&followup=<URL> https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl=en&product_co... Bonus URL #4 also included in the query string: https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&article_url=<URL> https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&arti... And bonus URL #5: https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl=en&product_context=2855120&product_name=UnuFlow&trigger_context=a https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl=en&product_co... Also, 2 different ways of URL encoding special characters, i.e. "=" is %3D and %253D (encoded twice).
csmarshall 5y ago
I get the need to make me pay for the services (and I'm happy to pay if it's worth it), but why the downgrading of services after paying for things. There are various little tick boxes in their comparison table where the "legacy" accounts have a feature that "basic" doesn't have, but are present in standard (I'm looking at you noise cancellation in google meet). Also, why the heck hasn't google solved the "GSuite users can't use this service" problem yet? I've been on GSuite since the beginning, and now I actively avoid google services because I'm sure they won't work with my google account. I'll most likely end up paying the fee, but why can't they just be a little nicer about it? Google Homespaces would be awesome, parental controls, mailboxes, custom domains, shared calendars, and I'd probably pay a pretty penny for it too. Come on...do better...

134 points by pavanyara 5y ago

Only strange part is that I still haven't been emailed about this massive change. It also doesn't appear in the Admin Center.

FfejL 5y ago
Same! I can only assume it's some kind of rolling announcement and they haven't gotten to us yet.
Operyl 5y ago
I didn't get an email either, but given I had to migrate a few organizations together I didn't want to take the bet on if I was affected or not. They're providing free through July, and half off through July 23rd 2023 to me, and I don't mind paying the costs personally, it was always a matter of just not having the time to migrate various accounts together.
blakesterz 5y ago
I'm in the same boat. I have no idea what to think. Maybe somehow some of us are still getting it free? Or somehow they forgot to email us and we're suddenly going to lose access?
- Macha 5y ago
  Wonder if it's a region by region notification. I'm in the EU. I did get an email from google last year that they were updating my account region from undefined to Ireland...
wccrawford 5y ago
I didn't get emailed yet either. I had already been thinking about moving my email anyhow, though, so I've done that now, just in case.
- mxuribe 5y ago
  Curiou, where did you end up migrating to? (I'm likely going to move to zoho...but am always interested to know other options.)
  - wccrawford 5y ago
    I chose purelymail.com after seeing a discussion about it here on HN. Fastmail was my other option that I was thinking about, but Purely was a lot cheaper, and I don't actually use those email addresses much yet.
    - mxuribe 5y ago
      Oh wow, I don't recall ever hearing about purelymail.com. i will check them out; thanks!
  - IMSAI8080 5y ago
    I was going to go Zoho. All I care about as a premium service is reliable email with a custom domain. This looks like it delivers it for either free or £10 a year (depending on requirements). Much cheaper than Google's offer.
    - mxuribe 5y ago
      Same here, i have little to no use for any of google's other services...i just need solid email service with my custom domain name. My early tests with zoho show it to be pretty good. Also, i follow @kevq , and he seems to be happy with zoho: https://kevq.uk/reasons-why-zoho-mail-is-better-than-gmail/ https://kevq.uk/reasons-why-zoho-mail-is-better-than-gmail/ Cheers!
tyingq 5y ago
When you log in, do the terms of service links lead to this page? https://workspace.google.com/terms/standard_terms.html https://workspace.google.com/terms/standard_terms.html It would be interesting if it didn't, which could suggest there's a different free product. "Google Workspace for Nonprofits", for example, seems to be unaffected by this change, and still free.
- nmcfarl 5y ago
  Not the grandparent - but I to have not received an email - and mine terms link does not go there. It goes to this: https://admin.google.com/terms/apps/1/5/en/standard_terms.html https://admin.google.com/terms/apps/1/5/en/standard_terms.ht...
  - daveloyall 5y ago
    Where is the link you are clicking? When I click "Program Policies" on the bottom of my personal-domain Gmail web interface, I get this: https://www.google.com/gmail/about/policy/ https://www.google.com/gmail/about/policy/ and when I click "Terms of Service" on the lower left of the Admin console, I get this: https://admin.google.com/ac/home?tos=true&authuser=2 https://admin.google.com/ac/home?tos=true&authuser=2
  - tyingq 5y ago
    Ah, but it does say "Google Workspace (Free) Agreement", so it seems like exactly the product in question.
pen2l 5y ago
I think the admin account is getting mailed. And uhmmm, that's my issue, I don't remember what even the account name of my GSuite admin is... much less the password.
- echelon 5y ago
  Same. In my book this qualifies as insufficient notice. Until Google mails me mitigation strategies, what can I do? Google doesn't really understand what a lot of folks are even using this stupid product for (custom email domains and that's it).
  - b112 5y ago
    s/understand/care/ They don't care. At all. You are the product, not the customer. Why inform you of anything? Google does this all. the. time. If you use any google product, expect to lose it without a moment's notice, no recourse, and tough beans if you don't like it.
    - b112 5y ago
      Extra info I was not aware of: https://www.androidpolice.com/google-gsuite-free-legacy-class-action-investigation/ https://www.androidpolice.com/google-gsuite-free-legacy-clas... Apparently, all purchases, etc vanish. Or are not transferable at least. It is a little unclear. I say Google is uncaring, but just wow. Wow.
- kevincox 5y ago
  I am the admin account for my org and didn't get anything.
- teejmya 5y ago
  From the FAQ on their site: If the administrator left the company, can a user become an admin? Yes. Current users can ask to become an administrator on the account by completing this form. Users will be required to prove domain registration ownership by creating a custom CNAME or TXT record. If the domain registration verification is successful and none of the existing administrators object, the user will be promoted to the super administrator role.
teejmya 5y ago
Same, no email about this. Time to move anyway.

andygcook 5y ago

Previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29996432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29996432

dijit 5y ago
It keeps popping up on the top page but due to comments/votes it gets ratio’d off the front page. I think it’s worth sticking this thread so it doesn’t vanish @dang
- johncena33 5y ago
  I think there should be a separate section on HN just for Google related discussions, given that the amount of threads pop up everyday on HN.
samwillis 5y ago
See also: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1642784952&dateRange=custom&dateStart=1642507200&query=G%20Suite https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1642784952&dateRange=custom&... I think the number of times this is being submitted/discussed shows both how many people are effected and how annoyed they are.

1-6 5y ago

Time to unload domains I was keeping around just because of G Suite free tier.

mindslight 5y ago
I too put more effort into keeping my grandfathered account than I ever got out. In my case it was my login getting trapped up by extra "security" to verify from a "previous device" when all such "devices" were long gone browser sessions, and having to go through the support bog to regain access. It always seemed like GApps on a custom domain would be good for something. But whenever I looked none of the services were compelling. Other side of the lock in looking glass, I guess. Given the dilemmas I'm seeing other people face (eg family got used to gmail on the domain, and either having to walk everyone through migration, or just give up and pay the Danegeld), I'm glad I dodged that bullet! About the only Google service I rely on is Voice, which would be easy enough to move except I don't know any other VOIP providers that are as a good as being accepted for snake oil 2FA and the like. I think Google gets a pass due to Project Fi. Does anyone have any recommendations? The best option running seems to be getting a paygo SIM, pop it in a stationary cell modem, and use that for snake oil 2FA. but shrug
HeavenFox 5y ago
I had a domain that I let expire, but the associated Google Apps remained valid and I continued to use it
- ayewo 5y ago
  Eventually, Google will ask you to revalidate your ownership of the domain once their systems detect that the domain has expired. Once this happened to me, I had to re-register the expired domain.

malinens 5y ago

Shameless plug: https://www.inbox.eu https://www.inbox.eu We have very basic free tier (allowed to send up to 3 emails per day for each mailbox if mobile phone is validated). We haven't deleted any validated domain for 15 years and will not do it in the future. We have also option to import all your mailboxes from gmail with google admin credentials.

drcongo 5y ago
I just tried to sign up for this after my failure to set up iCloud email, but the signup screen tells me my 100 character random password is weak and the continue button doesn't do anything. Starting to think I've been cursed by Google.
- drcongo 5y ago
  OK, I've passed that hurdle by using a much weaker password, but now I'm in, I've paid for five users, and I've validated my domain, it won't let me create any users. When I click on the Users & Inboxes section it tells me "The minimum requirements to create new users are HTML or TXT validation" and right under that it shows my TXT record as validated. And I got several emails from you telling me that it was validated.
  - malinens 5y ago
    Hi. I will check password and validation issues in monday morning. You can try to click validate (Recheck validation) button manually if there is problem with domain validation by CRON
  - malinens 5y ago
    I found the issue: we had only 32 char limit for passwords which is quite silly nowadays as password are always hashed. We have removed this limitation and soon will release the change in prod
    - drcongo 5y ago

nannal 5y ago

Have google given any insight at all as to what will happen to users purchases and so forth? Is it fair to assume that we either pay up or lose access to that which was purchased? In addition does this mean @gmail.com users should consider whether or not they could be subject to the same unexpected alteration regarding their own accounts?

amf12 5y ago
Based on comments on other threads it looks like just the email will be affected and users won't lose access to the account and purchases.
- sct202 5y ago
  It's pretty bad messaging that Google didn't spell out that out or anything else with what happens if you don't want to upgrade to paid G Suite on the linked page. The only thing they have is a link to takeout which implies to me that everything will be wiped if you don't upgrade. I'm always shocked at how badly they fumble consumer messaging.

anthropodie 5y ago

I mentioned below comment in another thread[0] some time back and I think it's relevant here too Three months ago I picked up new hobby: Self Hosting. It has been an amazing ride. I learned a lot and I also get peace of mind knowing I am in control of my data. I understand that there is no self-hosted alternative for certain SaaS services but I think that will change as more and more people choose to be in control of their data. A good place to start [1] [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30021404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30021404 [1]: https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted

jaywalk 5y ago
Self-hosting is great, but self-hosting email is generally nothing but a world of hurt. That's the one thing I would always leave to an established company.
- bshipp 5y ago
  My experience as well. Self host email if you want most of your messages to end up in spam...that's even if your ISP allows a self-hosted email server on their network. Read the fine print first. But pretty much everything else is super fun to self-host, especially if you get comfortable with docker and reverse proxies like nginx.
- pushrax 5y ago
  Agreed, I self hosted for many years and eventually gave it up. Maintaining high IP trust is tricky. A fun hack is to run a captcha-free fake forum and allow random bot signups to generate outbound mail volume and trust.
  - Macha 5y ago
    I imagine this could backfire if you get reported as spam by people who's email addresses bots have used.
- sgt 5y ago
  Been self hosting email since 2000. Very little maintenance. I lower risk by having less than 5 actual accounts, and of course normal anti spam measures.

xoa 5y ago

The lack of clarity is yet another irritating part of this. Like others, still no email for me. I've been reading that there will be a more gentle onramp than this seems to indicate, where those who "transition to paid" get one more free year, and then another year at 50% off. So anyone really tied in who wants more time before jumping ship that could be useful, but it'd be nice to actually have that all laid out officially in a mail. So would an official transition method to personal. I submitted a link to https://www.39digits.com/migrate-g-suite-account-to-a-personal-google-account https://www.39digits.com/migrate-g-suite-account-to-a-person... (2017) with a few notes [0] earlier today which seems to still mostly work. But the lack of purchase transfer means the pain will vary massively. Those of us who only used it as one of many possible custom domain email systems purely for old school client based IMAP email of course have the easiest smoothest pass. Jumping to something nice like MXroute or Migadu pretty much covers it (though I wish they had some sort of burst send pricing or option) and is smooth enough. Calendars and the like aren't bad either, and there are plenty of generic online storage options. At the opposite end are those with thousands of dollars or more in purchases tied to the account, or massive use of other services. As of right now they seem really screwed. As much as anything the sheer lazy shoddiness of this change is the irritating bit. I don't begrudge them a bit charging for a decent service, or cancelling offerings even. It might be dirt cheap but it's not free and they're offering some value. Ideally they'd have a basic paid tier for non-money making usage, and indeed that is missed in the brave new subscription world in general, but it is what it is. But it's just plain unprofessional not to even notify broad swaths of people, to leave open all sorts of questions about details, to not have any kind of purchase transfer for those who depended upon it, etc. The should be law mandating the ability to transfer purchases between accounts within the same service as a basic minimal floor, and that at least is not a unique Google problem in the slightest. Seems more the rule than the exception for digital software stores of all kinds. Going between services is reasonably more complicated, but within the same one shouldn't be impossible. ---- 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30023769 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30023769

tooltower 5y ago

Why does this send me to a login page? I was expecting a public announcement of some sort

ihuman 5y ago
You don't need to login if you use this link: https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120 https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120

gsuiteanon 5y ago

For anyone else frustrated by the vague mercurial umbrella language surrounding "GSuite/Workspaces/GApps"[1] and who this announcement applies to: > Users of Gmail who retain the "@gmail.com" domain suffix and have free Google accounts that give them Calendar, Drive, Docs and so on will not be affected — at least for now. [2] > This change applies only to those people, often in families or small businesses, who have been using a Google service that gave them free custom domain names and associated email addresses. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Workspace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Workspace [2] https://www.tomsguide.com/news/g-suite-free-shutdown https://www.tomsguide.com/news/g-suite-free-shutdown

Macha 5y ago
That article makes it sound like Google is paying for your domain registration. To be clear, it let you use your own (purchased elsewhere, though that could be Google Domains) domain for gmail. Also in the time since signups for the free tier closed, it's grown a load of business-y features too.

nrdgrrrl 5y ago

drcongo 5y ago

I've been trying to switch to iCloud email today, but apparently you need to set up an @icloud.com email address before you can use your own domain, and every single thing I've tried I get back a "This address is taken" message, even with entirely random strings [0]. They also have a 21 character limit, just to make it harder. [0] https://twitter.com/drcongo/status/1484489810932862982 https://twitter.com/drcongo/status/1484489810932862982

frou_dh 5y ago
Not the best example because QWERTY keyboard mashing happens at scale, and collides plenty!
idiot900 5y ago
I set up my @icloud.com email address on my iPhone. It suggests available alternatives. Once you migrate your own domain, you can just use that instead, and never have to use the @icloud.com address for anything externally visible.
- drcongo 5y ago
  I followed the instructions for setting it up on iPhone and iPad too but there’s no option to switch it on there on either device. If I search for it in settings, it shows up in the results but tapping that takes me to the place where it should be. https://twitter.com/drcongo/status/1484592787634937858 https://twitter.com/drcongo/status/1484592787634937858
pfg 5y ago
I've had this issue before - some combination of relaunching System Preferences, toggling the "iCloud Mail" checkbox and smashing "OK" repeatedly eventually made it work.

conanite 5y ago

While this is annoying to many of us, if it diminishes the general public expectation that that online services should be free and subsidised by advertising/marketing/related services, that would be good news. I'm not particularly optimistic about Google though, as they can charge for their services and continue the whole data-gathering game...

zombielinux 5y ago

So for those of us that got in this a decade ago, and have been running an entire family on it, what should be the chosen migration path? I've already got nextcloud hosted locally, and could easily add calendar support. The missing piece of the puzzle is email, and how mad android devices are going to get when their "google" email address no longer points to a google service.

mgiampapa 5y ago
Personally, I will lilely setup an on-prem Exchange instance and start mirroring content, but its a tool I happen to know well. My real plan is to wait for enough pain at Google by other nerdy employees to either solve the political or technical issues migrating out, or for this policy change to go away. I'll have my bags packed, but I still have hope that July is far enough away to not have to turn out the lights behind me.
- zombielinux 5y ago
  I'm of the opinion that if they're willing to do a halfassed implementation like this now, they can walk it back and try again later after the initial shock has worn off. The trust that the product will remain is gone. I guess I need to start packing my bags too.

hefferbub 5y ago

I use this service for my whole family (5 adults) so to continue would cost me $30 per month forever. Sux. Moving email service is not such a big deal, but we have hundreds of Google Docs files to try to transfer. My research indicates this is a laborious process.

dddddaviddddd 5y ago
I'm not looking forward to migrating Google Photos and YouTube playlists.
- tomjen3 5y ago
  Google takeout makes both surprisingly easy.
dheera 5y ago
0. Create a folder in Google Docs 1. Move all your shit into that one folder 2. Share folder with your @gmail account 3. In your @gmail account, make a copy of all the files in your shared folder into the parent directory. No need to download and re-upload.
tomjen3 5y ago
Can't you export them via Google Takeout?

komadori 5y ago

Many essentially ordinary Google account holders were incentivised to convert their accounts into domain (now G Suite) accounts for e-mail purposes. However, this has always had adverse consequences because many Google services don't support domain accounts and there is no way to undo the conversion (see https://support.google.com/a/thread/129862070/wind-up-organization-but-keep-accounts-how?hl=en https://support.google.com/a/thread/129862070/wind-up-organi... ). This just burdens those users further. The failure of Google to offer a way out of this trap means it must be politically and/or technically difficult. I used to work at Google a few years ago and I can substantiate that everything is politically difficult and I've seen enough of the way domain accounts were implemented to believe it could be technically difficult too.

CydeWeys 5y ago
+1 to it being technically difficult. I think it's a Gordian knot or different systems that's too entangled to ever cut.
- hendersoon 5y ago
  Google already has a mechanism to convert EDU accounts to standard gmail accounts. So most of the work is already done, it would just need to be tested, UI and docs written, etc.
  - Johnie 5y ago
    After spending years at Google, the one question you need to ask for these types of "features" is who is going to get promoted for it? It is such a promo-driven product development culture.
  - hackmiester 5y ago
    I work at a university. How do I do this?
jacquesm 5y ago
Well, they do have the option to simply leave it as they promised to do originally.

brechmos 5y ago

For the many families who have used GSuites for the past years, I would love to see a $3 / month / user, maximum of 5-10 users. I am stuck in the same boat as many others who created it for the family 10+ years ago and now am going through how to move each service (GMail, Drive, Keep, Photos, YouTube etc etc) to a plain Gmail account. I have most of it worked out, but it is going to take a lot of time getting 5 people migrated. Sigh.

turtlebits 5y ago
FWIW, I see an offer in my account for $3 month for a year from July 2022 - July 2023 (after the free migration period (now until July).
slivanes 5y ago
I'm in the same situation as you but I'm undecided, I might still pay the $6/m per user price. If I do so I will be disappointed in myself for paying the danegeld for the convenience. One tactic I am contemplating is using the Cloudflare Email Forwarder (https://www.cloudflare.com/apps/email-forwarding https://www.cloudflare.com/apps/email-forwarding) - this way I can keep all the custom domain email addresses and groups/mailing-lists and redirect them to the new personal gmail accounts. Only problem is that email replies will originate from the new personal addresses.
- freedomben 5y ago
  Use https://forwardemail.net/ https://forwardemail.net/ . With Gmail You can send from the alias.
- stickfigure 5y ago
  > Only problem is that email replies will originate from the new personal addresses. You can configure a regular gmail account to send from the custom domain. Visit: Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Send mail as You'll have to confirm ownership of the alternate email address, but it works fine. Even if the alternate email address is associated with a Gsuite domain.

mongol 5y ago

Have not looked extensively into alternatives but AWS WorkMail looks interesting. Not significantly cheaper but looks like a more predictable option. With Google you never know what is around the corner, I feel.

elpocko 5y ago

If you want to set up a PVS to handle email for you - what route would you recommend? Is it still sendmail.cf?

0x0000000 5y ago
Assuming you meant VPS, the biggest pain is that these cheap VPS cycle through IP addresses so frequently you're almost guaranteed to get an address on your box that is blacklisted, so all your outgoing mail is ending up in the recipients' spam box, if it gets there at all. That said, I've been using https://mailinabox.email/ https://mailinabox.email/ on a $2/mo VPS for about a year, for specific low volume e-mail, and I haven't had too much trouble.
- elpocko 5y ago
  > Assuming you meant VPS Yes, of course. How embarrassing. I already have a VPS for many years and it didn't change IP addresses ever. I need a simple way to make it my email server when I have to get away from Google.
  - 0x0000000 5y ago
    In that case, I can say mail-in-a-box is easy, however it does work kind of like an appliance and expects that the server is only being used for mail-in-a-box. You could move whatever's on your VPS now to a new one, and then put mail-in-a-box on the old one that's had the consistent IP? Alternatively, you could set up inbound forwarding to a personal e-mail (most registrars include free e-mail forwarding IME -- if yours doesn't, transfer it over to Namecheap), and then use an SMTP service for outbound mail from your domain (you could use Mailgun, SMTP.com, and many others). All of your inbound mail will be free, and if you find that you need to respond with your domain, you'll be paying way less than $6/mo for your outgoing.

A4ET8a8uTh0 5y ago

Odd question since I am clearly missing something. Is standalone gmail affected by this?

Macha 5y ago
If your account is foo@gmail.com, you're fine. You just have a regular consumer account. If your account is foo@mydomain.com, but gmail doesn't handle your mail and you're unable to access admin.google.com and you signed up for your own account rather than having it created by an employer or educational institute, then you're probably fine. You have a regular consumer account, but not at the gmail domain. If your account is foo@mydomain.com and gmail _does_ handle your mail, you are impacted by this. Or if you originally set it up as some form of gsuite or workspace or google apps for your domain account (you'll know if you did).

Daegalus 5y ago

I made my move a year or so ago. moved my email to go through improvmx.com setup all my domains and aliases to Gmail accounts and pay the $9 a month for smtp from them too. setup everything to go to Gmail and my outbound to go through the smtp servers. works great! i can switch providers as I please and every user can use their preferred provider. my mom likes outlook.com so her email goes there instead of Gmail. if I want to switch to proton, I can change just my own and move it there. I still use Google but moved all my stuff to consumer googlw with Gmail. Only thing I lost was Google Android apps purchases. Movies could be moved through MoviesAnywhere with some

cientifico 5y ago

Is there any way to migrate one "google for your domains" account to a @gmail.com account? I am looking on transferring: * Google maps location history (have it there since 2009). * Google photos of all the family accounts + plus partner sharing. * Google drive * Gmail * Google extra storage (that I pay already for). As far as I know, there are no way to migrate cleanly the data. Only crappy ways if possible at all.

hacker_newz 5y ago
I'm in the same spot. The only option I've found is to export via Takeout, but there's no way to import the dump.
Hamuko 5y ago
Profitable enough to kill legacy plans, not profitable enough to provide any kind of support.

hartator 5y ago

I am paying a subscription for extra GBs in one of these legacy “free” plans. (Remember they reduced GBs not so long ago?) I wonder what happen to my account.

oaiey 5y ago

Does outlook meanwhile have a free tier for custom domain? Same boat like everyone when it comes to the family usage.

p0d 5y ago

Get the users, then figure out how to bill them is getting a bit old now. To try and migrate my email I just bought a Hetzner Webhosting package for 1.9 euros a month for my custom domain. There is an option during the order to use your own domain but leave the registration/dns settings where they are. I'm now trying to figure out how use a subdomain on my current registrar to test the Hetzner mail. Currently the default mx is G Suite Free. If all goes well this may be my migration path from Google. I'm grateful for what I have had for free from Google but I am weary of their killing stuff.

darkwizard42 5y ago
This feels a little dramatic, no? You had an absolutely free service built on top of ad revenue. Now that free service has to pay for itself (due to investor or executive pressure). They are charging what is arguably around the same price point as alternatives with high feature parity. Google isn't "killing" anything, they are just asking users to start paying for it. Perhaps that loses them some users, but they are clearly after something else here (revenue, maybe they have data on how paid users behave differently, perhaps spam/bad actors are a concern on the free plan, idk)
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Sorry, but no. Google clearly advertised this as 'free forever'. This is on them.
- jorl17 5y ago
  Still serving ads, though, no?
  - filoleg 5y ago
    As far as I know, Google Workspace (formerly GSuite) doesn't serve ads[0]. 0. https://workspace.google.com/learn-more/security/security-whitepaper/page-6.html#no-advertising https://workspace.google.com/learn-more/security/security-wh...
- Macha 5y ago

renewiltord 5y ago

It's the min 3 users package that's annoying me. Looks like I need to go through a reseller to have a 1 user package. Also iffy if my Google Fi etc. will work or if I have to pay extra.

amimetic 5y ago
Is there really a minimum of 3? It seems to offer a "Just me" option. I also noticed it seems to include something equivalent to a standard zoom subscription so this whole thing might save me money! PS A lot of the comparison tables etc are confusing and in past I noticed (I'm in UK) the offer details vary by country.
- renewiltord 5y ago
  Pebkac I had 3 users in the account

TacticalCoder 5y ago

Shoot! I've got one tied to a really cool five letters dot com I own since forever. It changed names I don't know how many times ("Google apps for domain" ?, "G Suite" now "Google Workspace" and I don't know how many other names). Heck, I had since back when you could switch the free ones from one domain to another one. Then they tied it to the domain. It's been a good ride. I take I'll fork out the 5 EUR / month or so for the basic plan. Still a bit meh.

TrueDuality 5y ago

I've been using this as my primary personal domain when Google was encouraging normal users to switch to this. For the last half decade this has included the account associated with my personal Android purchases. It sounds like there is no migration path to keep these without paying the extortion... At the very least I've been unable to find anything about it. I have fiber and cell service associated with this account. What happens to those?

jdofaz 5y ago
I don't know about fiber or cell, but I was able to keep access to my purchases after canceling the legacy subscription and replacing it with "Cloud Identity Free Edition" subscription.
- TrueDuality 5y ago
  Thanks for that, definitely puts part of my solution at ease. The other services worst case scenario I'll have to cancel and resubscribe to which will be annoying but at least I don't loose my purchases.

thecrumb 5y ago

I would gladly pay something which aligns with why I started using this in the first place - an easy way to keep my family members connected. I wish they had an inexpensive 'family' or 'personal' plan instead of everything focused on business. But it's been obvious for awhile now - the old 'do no evil' Google is long gone. Long live profits and ads and screw everything else.

jdc0589 5y ago
I don't think this change is remotely related to the "do no evil" bit, but I do agree it sucks.
Hamuko 5y ago
Google One is inexpensive, but if you have your own domain, in Google's world you cannot be anything but a business and therefore cannot get anything other than business plans.

dark-star 5y ago

Does that mean that the free "Google Docs", "Google Sheets" etc. will no longer be available then? Or is "GSuite" something else? I haven't been able to figure this one out with certainty...

tpaulin 5y ago
I'm wondering the same because I thought "GSuite" stopped being free years ago.
Macha 5y ago
Docs/Sheets/etc haven't been announced to be going paid or unavailable for regular google accounts and that's a bigger shit storm whenever they try it. GSuite/Workspace accounts are something different to just having access to these services which you have if your account came from your school/employer or if you ever signed up to the product that was named at various times: * Gmail for your Domain * Google Apps for your Domain * Google Apps Free Edition * Google Apps (free tier) * GSuite * Google Workspace

noja 5y ago

Real link (no login required): https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120 https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120

4cao 5y ago
The original link for this submission is truly amazing. I guess it will eventually be changed, so to preserve it for posterity: https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?passive=1209600&continue=https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl%3Den%26article_url%3Dhttps://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl%253Den%26product_context%3D2855120%26product_name%3DUnuFlow%26trigger_context%3Da&followup=https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl%3Den%26article_url%3Dhttps://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl%253Den%26product_context%3D2855120%26product_name%3DUnuFlow%26trigger_context%3Da&hl=en https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?passive=1209600&con... URL #1: https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?passive=1209600&continue=<URL> https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?passive=1209600&con... Redirecting to URL #2: https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&article_url=<URL> https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&arti... Redirecting to URL #3: https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl=en&product_context=2855120&product_name=UnuFlow&trigger_context=a&followup=<URL> https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl=en&product_co... Bonus URL #4 also included in the query string: https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&article_url=<URL> https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&arti... And bonus URL #5: https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl=en&product_context=2855120&product_name=UnuFlow&trigger_context=a https://support.google.com/a/answer/2855120?hl=en&product_co... Also, 2 different ways of URL encoding special characters, i.e. "=" is %3D and %253D (encoded twice).

csmarshall 5y ago

I get the need to make me pay for the services (and I'm happy to pay if it's worth it), but why the downgrading of services after paying for things. There are various little tick boxes in their comparison table where the "legacy" accounts have a feature that "basic" doesn't have, but are present in standard (I'm looking at you noise cancellation in google meet). Also, why the heck hasn't google solved the "GSuite users can't use this service" problem yet? I've been on GSuite since the beginning, and now I actively avoid google services because I'm sure they won't work with my google account. I'll most likely end up paying the fee, but why can't they just be a little nicer about it? Google Homespaces would be awesome, parental controls, mailboxes, custom domains, shared calendars, and I'd probably pay a pretty penny for it too. Come on...do better...