Google’s killing off the best Gmail feature you never knew about

It’s the end of an era, at least it is for Google-feature stans. For nearly a decade, Google has offered a way to make non-Gmail inboxes feel a lot more like Gmail. That feature is called Gmailify, but it’s now on the way out.

According to an updated support page from Google, Gmailify will be discontinued this month. Once that happens, Gmail will no longer apply features like spam protection, inbox categories, advanced search, or enhanced notifications to third-party email accounts such as Yahoo or Outlook.

Gmailify worked by linking another email address to your Gmail account and pulling messages into your inbox, where Gmail then handled them almost as if they were native Gmail messages. For people who relied on Gmail as a central hub for multiple inboxes, that meant Gmail’s filtering and organization tools worked across everything in one place.

Those Gmail-specific features will no longer apply to non-Gmail accounts. You’ll still be able to read existing imported messages, but Gmail will stop treating third-party inboxes as first-class passengers.

As part of the same change, Gmail is also dropping support for fetching emails from other providers using POP. This is the underlying system Gmailify depended on, and once it’s gone, the “Check mail from other accounts” option will disappear from Gmail on the web. Any messages already synced before the cutoff will remain in your inbox.

Google says you’ll still have ways to access other email accounts through Gmail, just with fewer perks. You can add third-party accounts to the Gmail app on Android and iOS using a standard IMAP connection, or set up automatic forwarding from your email provider to keep new messages flowing into Gmail.

Google hasn’t given a specific reason for retiring Gmailify. It could be for costing or system reasons, though one could also speculate that Google wants to encourage users who want the full Gmail experience to actually get a Gmail address, or use their existing one more.