8 ms·

Google Disabling Exchange Sync for Free Accounts

• kalininalex 14y ago
  "Starting Jan. 30, 2013, only Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government customers can set up new devices with Google Sync." Am I reading it correctly that only new setups will be disallowed while existing devices will continue to work as-is?
  • hesselink 14y ago
    That's what I got from that page as well.
• mahyarm 14y ago
  This disables contact syncing for iOS devices. I hope this gets solved before the cut off date.
  • rryan 14y ago
    Apparently all devices currently using Google Sync will continue to work. The suggested route for new devices is IMAP/CalDAV/CardDAV. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/winter-cleaning.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/winter-cleaning.html
  • matt_heimer 14y ago
    Already solved, use CardDAV. http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2753077 http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answe...
• j45 14y ago
  Everytime I hear about Google starting to charge for something, or taking something away, I remember the time someone just told me to use Google because it was free, and easy. I should have noted that they hadn't been on the internet in the 90's when Microsoft did the same with Hotmail, and others. Ultimately, nothing is free. Still,I can't help but wonder if ads in emails didn't generate enough cash so now it's tiem to charge.
  • vxxzy 14y ago
    Sure! Nothing is free... Users need to be aware of the 'hidden' costs of anything whether it be free or paid. Time, learning, etc... all are involved with any software - or anything really. Companies, on the other hand, typically exist to make money. This is nothing new... However, unlike traditional companies, Google is more sensitive to its users needs. After all: "Let the consumers decide whether we are going in the right direction" Unfortunately, the majority of consumers are lazy; not caring and simply consuming. A company needs only to change a service ever so slightly in order to not affect a large majority. Small change - After change - After change until a company has fully 'maxed' the potential profit.
    • j45 14y ago
      I don't disagree at all. It's why I have no problem to continue to host my own email and web like I have since the 90's (Zimbra especially is intriguing) -- ultimately service providing will go through shifts every x years between providers anyways.
    • deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
  • wideroots 14y ago
    I believe Hotmail/Outlook.com is free. Sure, they make you to pay to remove those ads, but if you use AdBlock on Chrome or Firefox, you shouldn't see those ads. Plus, SkyDrive is so much better than Google Drive. I had too many document compatibility issues with Google Docs that I kinda gave up and joined SkyDrive. Staying with Microsoft with their cloud services has been pretty good for me so far.
    • Alaskan005 14y ago
      Outlook might not need to charge thanks to Windows /Office /Enterprise profits from Microsoft. But then, it's not like Google is starving for cash, they just more and next year will want even more and the cycle goes on.
    • j45 14y ago
• BryantD 14y ago
  IMAP and CalDAV will still work, so non-Android users are not going to be left out in the cold. Contacts can be synced with CardDAV. I get occasional errors syncing with CalDAV but I haven't tried to debug them or anything so it could easily be my stupid.
  • chockablock 14y ago
    Google doesn't offer 'push' for CalDav, so same regression as going from Exchange->IMAP.
  • wluu 14y ago
    Sure, on the iPhone. But won't work on a Windows Phone. Which sucks, quite frankly.
• benguild 14y ago
  Um, what the hell? Isn't Exchange the only way to get true "Push" email and events in the iPhone's Mail + Calendar clients? I've been using Exchange exclusively instead of IMAP for Calendar and Mail "Push" since I switched to iPhone.... This is absolutely outrageous.
  • ogmo 14y ago
    I'm sure they want you to use the iOS Gmail app. While it doesn't support true "Push" email, it does receive push notifications which is a pretty good approximation.
    • nwh 14y ago
      It fairly awful if you spend any serious time with it. The badge on the app reflects the unread count of every account that is active in the app, but even when you open it, there's utterly no indication of which inbox has unread email. I've just three accounts added to their app, and its already a hunting game finding where that mysterious (1) is coming. Most of the interface feels weird too. You can't slide to archive an email in the new version, as it opens the siding panel. The behaviour is still hidden away though, tap and hold and slide tricks the old gesture into working again. Ticking and tapping for every interaction feels clunky. It's not a replacement for proper psush email in Apple's Mail.app. I'd host my own push email, but I've struggled finding anything that is lightweight and supports IMAPs IDLE command (allowing for push email).
      • Firehed 14y ago
        Fully agree. While you get new mail notifications, the messages are not downloaded to the app in the background as they hit your inbox. Every time you swipe the notification to view the message, you have to wait a good ten seconds for the app to load and then retrieve the message, assuming you have the good fortune for it to even send you to the right message (it's been spotty at best for me). I could get over the interface oddities as that's mostly a matter of aesthetics, but it's nowhere near as fast as Mail.app to actually open your new email, and that's the killer for me.
• rdl 14y ago
  Wow, Google really hates people using Google Mail now. I wonder why -- is this to get people to switch to the premium service (and thus revenue), or to move them to Android?
  • Firehed 14y ago
    I assume the former, as they just killed free signups for Apps For Your Domain (and one of the best "first hit is free" tricks in recent history)
  • notatoad 14y ago
    >Wow, Google really hates people using Google Mail now. No, they hate people using gmail as a free enterprise-quality backend for some other mail system. The message seems pretty clear to me: if you want to use gmail, use gmail (with an official gmail client and an @gmail address) or pay up. If you want to use some service other than gmail for your email, use their backend too.
    • deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    • enraged_camel 14y ago
      >>enterprise-quality You must be joking.
      • fpgeek 14y ago
        You're right. Suggesting that Gmail is merely an enterprise-quality mail system is crazy. It wipes the floor with every other enterprise mail system I have ever used.
        • enraged_camel 14y ago
          You haven't used any good ones.
          • 14y ago
• joevandyk 14y ago
  How will calendar syncing work with iOS devices?
  • erikpukinskis 14y ago
    I think if you gook up your Gmail account in the Settings app, and you have the Calendar option turned on it should work. See http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=151674 http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&a...
    • aerique 14y ago
      Yes, this works fine. Been using it for quite a while now for contacts and calendar (and maybe notes too, I'd have to check).
  • notatoad 14y ago
    CalDAV, i guess. i don't use any iOS calendar, but everybody seemed pretty excited when they announced support for it a couple months ago.
• blhack 14y ago
  Was there a recent major managerial shift at google or something? This kindof stings.
  • TillE 14y ago
    Ever since they quickly killed Wave rather than keep it around as a research project, I've been more and more disappointed about the direction of Google. And except for Google Drive, most of the stuff they're now charging for is clearly aimed at large businesses, with little consideration for smaller organizations or individuals.
    • Terretta 14y ago
      There're two ways to get money. A few people to give you a lot (hard), or a lot of people to give you a little (harder). Google's just going for both.
  • abraham 14y ago
    It was not so recent but this is part of Larry Page becoming CEO. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-20/google-profit-tops-estimates-on-ad-demand-page-is-named-ceo.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-20/google-profit-tops-...
    • ihsw 14y ago
      Indeed, there was a lot of noise about his desire for broad-sweeping streamlining -- namely dropping projects (or combining projects) and increasing acquisitions. Notably they stopped projects that had limited adoption. Incidentally this was also when 20% time fell through and Google Plus really started to be pushed as the centre-piece connecting all other projects.
• simplexion 14y ago
  Good. Hopefully it will help create a decent open protocol for groupware.
• deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
• michael_miller 14y ago
  Does anyone know if Google is paying royalties to Microsoft for use of the Exchange protocol? If so, this may be a sensible move, especially if Google is paying the royalties on a per-account basis. Also, I'm doubtful that this affects the majority of users: on both major mobile platforms (Android and iOS), Google has a push solution with nearly identical functionality to Exchange.
  • guessWhy 14y ago
    Yes, they do (The protocol is called ActiveSync). I don't know if it's on a per-account basis, though.
  • chockablock 14y ago
    What push mail solution for iOS are you referring to? The native Gmail app? I don't think I'd agree that is provides 'nearly identical functionality to Exchange'.
• rlu 14y ago
  why?
• tomflack 14y ago
  Windows Phone needs to support cardDAV and calDAV already.
• pidg 14y ago
  I use the little sync app to sync my work (Exchange) calendar with my personal (Google) one. Is that what they've broken? I'm assuming so, since the download link has disappeared from the page. The one that used to go to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync/thankyou.html https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync/thankyou.html .
  • berberich 14y ago
    You're looking at the wrong page: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync I would expect this to keep working. According to the original article, this affects mobile devices using the free Google accounts.
• tlrobinson 14y ago
  Does this include Gmail, or just Google Apps?
  • chatmasta 14y ago
    I'm wondering the same.
  • djcapelis 14y ago
    It seems like it's everyone but paid Google Apps users that are losing the ability to set up new devices: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/winter-cleaning.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/winter-cleaning.html (My reading of that is that this effects gmail users as well.)
• Terretta 14y ago
  But, but, we're the product!
• WrkInProgress 14y ago
  While I think this is more a shot across the bow of Windows Phone (no support for cardDav and calDav, and no GMail app from Google), I don't think iOS users get away scott-free either. I was under the impression that GMail uses their own version of IMAP? The built in iOS mail client does not provide push e-mail via IMAP but instead uses P-IMAP for push e-mail via iCloud.
  • ladzoppelin 14y ago
    All this will do is push people to outlook.com web mail which lets you add GMail accounts (I also find it better).
• cbs 14y ago
  This is why I tend to prefer the android architecture over the iphone's. If I still had an android phone and a not-google 3rd party provider stopped offering ActiveSync, I'd just use whatever their new thing is. iPhone says I have to sync using the X Y or Z protocol. android can connect to Exchange and also lets me write a custom sync app. I can download an app that hooks whatever-the-hell directly into my contact list (or other android system bits). As long as a little bit of java is written for it, any and every API can be turned into a 1st class citizen. Its the same for sharing. I click the share button on android and I get a list of all the applications that can take my android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND intent. On iPhone, I can pick any service I want as long as it's twitter.
  • monochromatic 14y ago
    Turning this into a pro-Google, anti-Apple thing was really not an easy piece of rhetoric. I applaud you for even trying.
    • cbs 14y ago
      Why you gotta look at it in those terms? Relative advantages and disadvantages can exist without couching it in the terms of pro-x anti-y. Seriously, would anyone actually give a damn about this if cellphones were not uniquely tied to the exchange sync protocol? Is it not true that the cellphone I choose to own is at a disadvantage in this particular circumstance?
      • monochromatic 14y ago
        You're the one who put it in those terms, not me. And yes, regardless of particular phones being tied to particular protocols, I would still care that google is disabling something that I've used every day of my life for years.
  • deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  • el_cuadrado 14y ago
• MiWDesktopHack 14y ago
  So the feature that I have used on 3 iPhones for the last few years will no longer work in 45 days time? My current iPhone will be the last device I am able to get push mail and contact syncing on? When my phone finally dies, and I get another one, I won't be able to have the same functionality I had today? How come the future has so many less features... This is a joke, right?
• mwill 14y ago
  With all these changes to Googles free lineup, can anyone paying for Google services give some insight to what the support is like? On the free accounts, I pretty much felt like I was on my own as far as Google is concerned, which I suppose is fair enough. I'm just wondering if you feel like a paying customer? If not, does the service itself make up for it?
• marshallford 14y ago
  Could someone please clear up my confusion as I am not very familiar with email protocols and standards. Which of the following will not work after Jan. 30th? iOS - CardDav for contacts (2 way sync) - Exchange for email and calendar Android - default setup, I added my gmail at setup - email, contacts, tasks, calendar... all work out of the box once you have added your gmail account. Thunderbird (PC) - email, contacts, calendar
  • codeka 14y ago
    It's basically "exchange" support. Android is unaffected and on iOS, IMAP, CalDAV & CardDAV can be used in place of ActiveSync (mostly)
• mun2mun 14y ago
  In 2-3 years Google Play will bring half of Google's total revenue. Only god and google knows what will happen during that time.
• habosa 14y ago
  While I wish Google wouldn't do this, I can't expect a company to do something for my benefit if it's not profitable. Also I'm pretty damn glad I have an Android phone.
• scrumper 14y ago
  This is unpleasant for many, and will hurt a lot of people who use personal devices at work. Why would Google do something like that? It's not inexplicable: Perhaps the board feel that they aren't growing or earning fast enough to keep their shareholders happy. Maybe Google have some fears about the future of online advertising and want to diversify their sources of revenue. It could be that the service's free users are costing too much and are an easy way to save money. Either way, it's very unlikely to be a simple matter of avarice. Companies act greedily, but usually for sound (or at least consistent) reasons. One possible benefit I haven't seen anyone else mention: they might finally improve their miserable customer support. That's easier to do when the product you're supporting is bringing in money directly.
  • mikelward 14y ago
    > it will hurt a lot of people who use personal devices at work. No, it only affects free accounts, not business accounts.
• evanmoran 14y ago
  This press release was very poorly done. We are all concerned if mail on our phones will be shut off, but with CalDAV and CardDAV support and the Gmail app its probably going to be OK. This message should have been the first thing they conveyed. Google does some pretty amazing things but if they keep cutting services with these sorts of announcements we will loose faith.
• forgetcolor 14y ago
  so can i just pay to keep this feature?
• zaidf 14y ago
  1. Launch barebones, simplified product for free 2. Iterate on user feedback, often for years 3. Get tonnes of folks hooked 4. Begin charging
  • mtgx 14y ago
    You make it sound as if Google wanted you to use Microsoft's ActiveSync. They've only offered it so far for free (while having to pay Microsoft for it) because a lot of users needed it. But other standards have appeared since then, and they are pushing for the adoption of those, and less reliance on Microsoft's proprietary technologies. Apple is doing the same thing, too.
    • UnoriginalGuy 14y ago
      What other standards have appeared that support calendar, contacts, and tasks sync? Google are doing this to stop third parties from offering Gmail integration without paying some kind of Google Tax (e.g. other platforms, apps, web-sites, etc).
      • elithrar 14y ago
        > What other standards have appeared that support calendar, contacts, and tasks sync? IMAP + IDLE, CalDAV, CardDAV? Whether they are a 1:1 feature replacement is another thing, but they are options.
        • UnoriginalGuy 14y ago
          And tasks? Plus that isn't really comparable since now instead of depending on a single connection (ActiveSync) you now need IMAP and a WebDAV server minimum. This entire area has been so controlled by Exchange Server for so long that there really aren't many true alternatives. The WebDAV based ones are messy at best.
      • buster 14y ago
        Ever heard of CalDAV and CardDAV? There is a world besides proprietary protocol crap out there. When will people learn...
• Tichy 14y ago
  Well this used to be the way I migrated people with old phones to Android. Since it is impossible to still get the arcane sync software for old Nokia or Sony phones to work, I always just synced them to Google. Once - then that person's new Android phone would sync them back. I can't imagine that was too taxing on their servers :-(
• wslh 14y ago
  Don't be evil! I only see cynicism in the way the companies are working: be friendly and open source until you gain a good market position, then do chess moves. I also remember paying 0.05 in adwords... and getting new customers.
• cdcarter 14y ago
  Alright, it seems like we're getting to that point. Does anybody know if Fastmail.fm can be configured with ActiveSync or IMAP/IDLE? Is there a pay email provider out there that supports these, and is relatively trustworthy? My work relies on me getting email in real-time (clients send out requests for work to their entire freelance list, first come first serve).
  • cdcarter 14y ago
    It looks like Rackspace Email (not just their Exchange offering) supports ActiveSync, if anyone else is looking.
• twodayslate 14y ago
  So what is the alternative? I want to be able to sync my Google calendar and contacts with my iPhone.
• level09 14y ago
  Google are killing their own product. I have deployed apps for over 30 clients, and now I think it's the time to look for alternatives. Perhaps Amazon can introduce something to fill this gap ?
• loceng 14y ago
  Slippery slope. Many of us have Google in a good light because of the free tools they provide. We've given them our attention and trust when it comes to search, and therefore allow them to make money off of it. At a certain point this could backfire and allow a competitor to offer everything Google does, a good enough option, and not try to milk every cow to the last drop..
• brackin 14y ago
  Outlook.com is starting to become an alternative. I hate using anything related to Windows Live though. I also want to use my own domain name, I remember seeing a post explaining how to do this with Outlook.com. Yahoo could actually try to take on Google Apps. The most choice the better.
• thom 14y ago
  Meh, in real terms the only thing lost here is push updates, and I'm almost certain I'll be a happier, more productive person because of that.
• andor 14y ago
  Switching to iCloud for Push Mail will not be a solution for users in Germany. Due to a patent lawsuit by Motorola (owned by Google), Apple and others can't offer push [0]. The patent in question is European patent 0847654 [1], for a "multiple pager status synchronization system and method". I wonder if Apple could implement IMAP IDLE in the mail client? Since most mail servers and clients support IDLE for years, I don't think anybody could claim it's patented. [0] http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4208?viewlocale=en_US http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4208?viewlocale=en_US [1] http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=worldwide.espacenet.com&II=0&ND=3&adjacent=true&locale=en_EP&FT=D&date=19980617&CC=EP&NR=0847654A1&KC=A1 http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=...