Tag: thunderbird

Thunderbird Pro and Thundermail details emerge

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The team behind the open source email client Thunderbird has revealed information about Thunderbird Pro and Thundermail.

Thunderbird Pro is an upcoming subscription-based service that adds features to Thunderbird. It won’t take anything away from current Thunderbird, but adds new features, namely Appointment management, Send and Assist.

Also, Thundermail is a web-based email service that will work similarly to how Google handles Gmail, but more privacy-friendly.

You can check out the hour-long YouTube video to see extensive demos of the integrated features.

Here is what I think about the development. As long as the devs do not cut features from the free version of Thunderbird just to push the Pro version, I’m fine with it. In fact, it is a good idea to diversify revenue to ensure continued development of the free and commercial versions of Thunderbird and the included services.

While I do not have much use for the Pro features, I can see them being useful to some users. In fact, some users might even switch to Thunderbird just because of these or the new web-based email service.

A missing puzzle piece is the iOS version of Thunderbird, which will be released in the future. This extends the service’s reach significantly, as it will support all major desktop and mobile operating systems for the first time since its launch decades ago.

Now You: what is your take on that? Would you subscribe to Thunderbird Pro or Thundermail? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Thunderbird for iOS: first alpha coming this year

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The Thunderbird open source email project is making huge strides. After readying the first mobile version of Thunderbird for Android, the team has set its sight on the second big mobile operation system Apple iOS.

The details:

  • The repository of Thunderbird for iOS is not publicly available on GitHub.
  • The developers aim for an alpha release of the mobile client in late 2025.

Philipp Kewisch, mobile engineer at MLZA Technologies, the organization behind Thunderbird, revealed the good news officially in a message.

The project is just at the beginning and the developers are not openly looking for code contributors at this stage.

Kewisch explains the next steps that are going to happen:

What is next? We’re simultaneously working on some of the iOS essentials and architecture prep. These are all the basics of what types of objects and interfaces do we need, how do they play together, what does the database look like, etc. We’ll start sharing some preliminary details on this soon and give you the opportunity to share your feedback.

This means that it will take a while before iOS users can get their hands on a public prototype of the email app for their mobile operating system.

The greater picture is interesting though. One of Thunderbird’s main weaknesses up until now was lack of support for mobile apps. Mobile users had to use a different email client or access web-based email instead to access emails on mobile.

The release of the Android client and the future release of the iOS client closes that gap.

To make this a true contender for Gmail or Outlook, Thunderbird’s team is also working on a web email service.

Thunderbird Android

Thunderbird financials: doing really well

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The team behind the open source email client Thunderbird has released the annual report for the 2023-2024 period. The report covers major developments as well as an overview of financials.

And it could not look better. Financial contributions reached 8.6 million US Dollar in 2023, which is an increase of nearly 35 percent when compared to 2022’s 6.4 million US Dollar.

The project received donations from over 300,000 individuals according to the report. The median amount donated was 11,12 US Dollar and the number of big — over 1,000 US Dollar — donators was just 56 in the period.

Donations from five countries — Germany, the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Japan — accounted for more than 63 percent of all donations.

The expenses chart is interesting, especially when compared to Mozilla’s expense chart. More than 68 percent of expenses go to personnel, and almost 14 percent to infrastructure and operational services. Donation processing fees eat up more than 7 percent, which means that more than 600,000 US Dollar are wasted on fees. Marketing makes up 2 percent of expenses.

The bulk of revenue flows directly into the Thunderbird project and related services.

Major development took place since 2023

The organization has released two major versions of Thunderbird for the desktop since 2023. First Thunderbird 115 in 2023 and then a year later the big Thunderbird Nebula release.

K-9 Mail for Android was finally turned into Thunderbird for Android, which marked a major development step in creating a true cross-platform solution.

Development on add-on services began in 2023 as well. The team focused its efforts first on services that would add value to Thunderbird and align with its own values and goals. The following services were created as a consequence:

  • Appointment, a calendar scheduling tool
  • Send, based on Firefox-Send, a file transfer tool.
  • Thunderbird Sync, a file synchronization tool to sync settings between all devices.

Development picked up pace between 2023 and 2024, and so did community contributions, which suggests that it is heading in the right direction.

Now you: do you use Thunderbird as your email client or another application? What is your take on the development? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Thunderbird Android

Thunderbird is now officially available for Android

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The open source email client Mozilla Thunderbird is now also available for Android. This marks a big milestone for the makers and enables users to use the client on desktop systems and on mobile systems powered by Android.

With iOS support in the works, Thunderbird will be a true cross-platform email client that you can run on all major operating systems.

One of the main questions that existing Thunderbird users may have is this: how do I get my settings imported to Android?

Thankfully, Thunderbird’s team has published an easy to follow step-by-step guide that explains the entire process.

Note: the functionality requires manual steps. It also requires the latest version of Thunderbird 128 or Thunderbird Beta 132 or newer on the desktop. Only these versions come with the “export for mobile” option that is required.

Import email data from Thunderbird desktop to Android

All the latest version of Thunderbird for the desktop include an option to export data specifically for mobile use.

Here is how that is done:

  1. Open the Thunderbird email client on the desktop system.
  2. Select Menu > Tools > Export for Mobile.
  3. Modify the accounts you want to export (Optional).
  4. Decide whether you want to include account passwords (Optional)
  5. Activate the Export button.

Thunderbird displays a QR code when you hit export. Keep the screen open and switch to your Android device.

  1. Open Thunderbird on the Android device.
  2. Activate the get started button on the first screen.
  3. Select import settings.
  4. Scan the QR code that Thunderbird on the desktop shows.
  5. Select next, if you have selected multiple accounts for export.
  6. Repeat the steps 4 and 5 until all accounts have been added.

If everything went well, Thunderbird for Android should have imported the account settings from the desktop client. Thunderbird for Android should start looking for new emails immediately.

You can check out the full blog post to find out what is new and supported in Thunderbird for Android.

Thunderbird 128

Thunderbird 128 Email client is now available

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The team behind the open source email client has released the long-awaited Thunderbird 128 to the public. The version is not yet available as an update, only as a direct download from the official website.

You can upgrade from current stable versions of Thunderbird to the new release, but need to run the installer to do that.

As far as system requirements are concerned, Thunderbird 128 won’t run anymore on pre-Windows 10 or macOS 10.15 devices. Users who use add-ons or customizations may run into issues, but this is the case for every new major release. It may be a good idea to wait a few release cycles as many of the issues may have been sorted out by then.

The official release notes are quite long, which is to be expected.

Thunderbird 128: a quick rundown

While there have been a good number of changes, Thunderbird 128 looks and behaves for the most part like Thunderbird 115. This is good for consistency.

There are differences though. UI density, for example, affects the multi-message view now as well. I prefer to use compact, as it shows more messages and information on the screen at the same time.

You can change density and other layout-related preferences by selecting View of the menu at the top.

On Windows, Thunderbird is now using the native notifications system. There is also support for operating system accent colors and custom account colors are now shown in the form field when composing a message.

If you want to display full names and email addresses of all recipients in a message list, you can do so now with the new preference mail.addressDisplayFormat. This needs to be set in the advanced configuration, which you may access via Tools > Settings > Config Editor.

The new version improves its OpenPGP implementation as well.

Closing Words

Thunderbird 128 looks like a polished version of Thunderbird 115. The big update does not interfere with the layout nearly as much as the last major update of the email client.

Many of the changes are cosmetic in nature, but these do not get in the way either. This may be different for users who use lots of add-ons or customization options, as extensions need to be updated to remain compatible with the new Thunderbird release.

Again, most users may want to wait a couple of months before they start considering upgrading to the new releases.

What about you? Do you use Thunderbird? What is your take on the new Thunderbird 128?

Thunderbird Android

Thunderbird for Android postponed to 2024

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The first official version of Thunderbird for Android will not be released in 2023. The Thunderbird team announced this week that it has postponed the release to 2024.

To better understand why, it is necessary to look back at the initial plan. It all started with the separation of Thunderbird from core Mozilla. Eventually, the new team announced plans to release the email client for Android.

Instead of creating an app from scratch, which would have taken considerable development resources and time, it decided to cooperate with an existing app developer. K-9 Mail is a long standing app for Android.

Now that the target was set, the team had to decided on a feature set for Thunderbird for Android. K-9 Mail supported core features already, but to make it Thunderbird, the app had to support a set of features that the team considered essential.

Once the list was set in stone, the team estimated the development time it would take to get these features integrated. It even set the end of 2023 as the release period for the first stable release of Thunderbird for Android.

As year’s end kept coming closer, the team realized that the app would not be ready for a release. Even cutting features was not enough, and it could also disappoint some users who expected certain features to be present.

Thunderbird for Android in 2024

The decision was made to postpone the official release of Thunderbird for Android to 2024. The change removes pressure from development. It also means that the first release version will support all the features of the original list.

For now, it is still K-9 Mail which users may download from F-Droid or Google Play to install on their Android devices. In 2024, it will change automatically to Thunderbird for Android on devices it is installed on.

Closing words

The decision to postpone the release makes sense on many levels. Instead of rushing a version that may not be up-to-par quality or feature-wise, development is getting enough time to get it right the first time.

A false start could have negative consequences for the entire app on Android. The team needs to take a look at user reviews as well, as they are not only positive.

Interested users may check out the latest development progress report on the official Thunderbird blog.

Now You: do you use an email app on your mobile devices?