by sesquipedalian2 on 5/17/22, 12:33 AM
I closed my GSuite account and migrated to Fastmail when the free tier shutdown was first announced. I’m glad I did. Fastmail does several things
better than GSuite/GMail. It has a very nice UI. I was expecting a UI downgrade, but was pleasantly surprised.
Also, migrating (including setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) was fast and easy.
The $50/year price difference is well worth it. I’m sharing this because I wouldn’t have switched on my own. But I should have migrated even before Google’s changes were announced. The competition has surpassed Google’s offering.
by filmgirlcw on 5/16/22, 10:26 PM
This is a relief. I might still move some of my personal domains off of GSuite, but the fact that I don't have to is honestly a real relief.
And I wouldn't even mind paying. If you wanted to charge me just for email without any of the other stuff and not offer support, I'd pay $100 a year if you could give me unlimited (or even 25 or whatever the original number of email addresses was) separate inboxes. But when you insist on charging me $5 or $6 a month per address and domain (which for my completely personal use case would be $24 a month), and I'm not ever going to use any of the other stuff -- then I get annoyed. Especially since I could have just set up an alias on a free account, years later, when that became an option.
I understand these types of plans keep getting shut down because businesses or spammers or moochers abuse them, I do. But a personal/family targeted plan for hosted email with a custom domain should be something someone can offer that doesn't charge people $25 or $30 a month.
by kelnos on 5/17/22, 3:09 AM
I'm still holding out for an account conversion to a non-GSuite personal Google Account
without Gmail.
I've been constantly annoyed over the past few years over features that are missing from GSuite accounts. To name a few: you can't invite people to your Google Home household, you can't start or join a YouTube Premium family plan, you can't add Nest devices to your account. I think some parts of the calendar integration still don't work with Google Home if you're using a GSuite account. It's been pretty frustrating, honestly.
And you can't really use Takeout to download data, delete the account, and then re-create it as a non-Gmail Google Account without it being super lossy. Things like docs and photos sharing settings would have to be manually recreated (or I suppose I could try to write a script that uses the GDrive API, but who has time for that). YouTube watch history and subscriptions can't be imported. The worst bit: Google Play purchases are just gone. Etc., etc.
So if they actually offered the ability to convert my account, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I've already moved my email over to Fastmail, so I don't need Gmail anymore.
by knorker on 5/16/22, 11:08 PM
What a fucking mess. You make the whole world panic, your migration tools are not ready, and then you say "actually, just kidding" and tell everyone who believed what you said that you would delete their accounts (because you basically said their accounts would be deleted), to "contact support".
It's an overused trope, but this was so poorly planned, executed, and communicated and it can only be explained by decision makers actually being on drugs.
by qbasic_forever on 5/16/22, 10:03 PM
Just moved my legacy plan over to the 'new' personal use/free plan and it seems fine. Good grief how this wasn't the plan from the very start is just beyond me. I hope the complete trashing of trust and perception with the earliest and most tech connected users was worth it, Google.
by theogravity on 5/16/22, 11:37 PM
For those that selected the paid option like I did before this was available - I DM'd @AskWorkspace on twitter, and they pointed me to this link
https://support.google.com/a/answer/1047213
If you follow the instructions and go to the '?' > 'Contact Support', there is an option for switching back to the legacy edition.
by grandpoobah on 5/16/22, 10:13 PM
Thanks for the unnecessary anxiety Google! I wish I could get back the wasted brain cycles spent contemplating how the fuck I was going to transition my family to something else.
by dageshi on 5/16/22, 10:25 PM
Whelp screw me for proactively dealing with the situation I guess?
by sputr on 5/16/22, 10:10 PM
Load of my shoulders. As much as I hate to be beholden to Google, both my parents (in their 70s) use our gsuit account with custom domain and migrating them to a different service was … well, you know how it goes. The cost was a bit much.
So thanks Google.
by jmull on 5/16/22, 10:18 PM
Huh.
Well, I already moved my custom domain email over to fastmail.
Been meaning to for a while anyway... I'd rather pay them a few bucks than keep having Google do whatever it was they were doing with my email (maybe nothing all that bad, but who the hell knows?)
The transition was smooth.
by htrp on 5/16/22, 9:35 PM
I'd like to know what exactly was the decisioning around this as it seems like a case study in how not to do product management.
by trombonechamp on 5/16/22, 10:26 PM
36 hours too late for me - I deleted my 14+ year old GSuite account yesterday morning. Oh well, Fastmail seems great so far.
by hacker_newz on 5/16/22, 10:35 PM
Why did I have to find this out from Twitter rather than Google?
by jrochkind1 on 5/17/22, 1:04 PM
I find it somewhat odd (or disturbing?) that they spent months telling us this wouldn't be an option; then a couple months telling us it would be an option but without custom domain email; then now, just weeks before the former June 1 deadline, custom domain email is an option too?
So the option is available to those who were waiting until the last minute to do anything about it -- which is probably quite a lot of people actually. (It is me, but I still will probably use the push to get off google finally).
I wonder what's going on within Google.
by meibo on 5/16/22, 10:00 PM
This is great, but really should've been done in the first place. Must've been a major PR oversight/disconnect, no clue how that happened.
by fartcannon on 5/16/22, 10:50 PM
Stop letting them push you around like this. Leave, never look back.
by lawgimenez on 5/16/22, 11:44 PM
I am on GSuite's Legacy plan because of this one
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404 and I was very disappointed with them transitioning to paid. I believe their turnaround has something to do with EU/USA government going after big tech?
by jrib on 5/16/22, 10:00 PM
I transitioned to fastmail for e-mail and am happy I did. I really like google docs and google sheets, but I'm moving off of google drive for everything else and just using syncthing.
by koliber on 5/17/22, 10:55 AM
I switched yesterday to the paid Workspace account. It was weird needing to come up with a company name to do it. I'm glad Google offers this option now for people who've used the legacy GSUite in order to be able to have a custom domain name for email.
It looks like I may be able to undo this switch:
> If you transitioned to Google Workspace after January 19, 2022 and used G Suite legacy free edition for personal use, you can [contact Support](https://support.google.com/a/answer/1047213)
by atestu on 5/16/22, 10:18 PM
Good things come to those who procrastinate, I guess.
by KerrickStaley on 5/16/22, 10:14 PM
Hmm, I already opted in to Google Workspace, even though I only use the account for personal use. I wonder if there will be an option to switch?
by floatinglotus on 5/16/22, 10:35 PM
I migrated everything to Zoho already. $1 a month is a fair price.
by Someone1234 on 5/16/22, 10:47 PM
Anyone know if wildcards still work with this? I mostly make up domain addresses on the fly e.g. hn@example.com
by gtirloni on 5/17/22, 1:39 AM
Do not use a Google Workplace (GSuite) account for personal accounts. Last time I did, many things didn't work (e.g. Google Play, YouTube Premium, etc). They might work now but it was a bad experience (non-paying customers seemed to have better service).
by Cellentel on 5/17/22, 2:13 AM
I currently have a legacy account with one user, with a bunch of emails and a handful of other Google data. What happens if I use to transfer to a personal account under my domain (which seems to be how this works?), but then transfer the domain to Fastmail for email? Am I able to create a normal "free" gmail account with the rest, or does transferring email to Fastmail inevitable delete all of the other data on the account?
Part of me doesn't want to deal with the risk and hassle tied to all this, but another part of me wants to get as far away from Google as possible as a result of this experience.
by metadat on 5/17/22, 1:21 AM
Still quite shitty of Google to insist on sunsetting this one. God damn, it's infuriating. Never again will I be so naive and trust them. Damn Big-G cold blooded.
by rootsudo on 5/17/22, 12:35 AM
The message is clear - you are the product and Google is finding you too expensive. Pay up or move out.
We are all aware of how Google treats products they sunset. We are aware how they want to raise their subscription rates and services.
I would say besides Fastmail and other email providers, take a look at Microsoft w/ O365. Yes it's pricy, but it offers a full office suite and can be as low as $60/yr for a business premium plan.
by ibejoeb on 5/17/22, 3:22 AM
Folks seem to be favoring fastmail above most of the other options. Does anyone like ProtonMail? Any particularly compelling pros or cons for either?
by ChrisArchitect on 5/17/22, 4:12 PM
Took them awhile and it's a mystery why they had no foresight to know this option was needed or at least a way to move laterally, but good that they did something. Anyone that managed to get over the initial freaking out and decide to wait to see should be able to sort something out with this, and I read that they are providing good support helping people with questions.
by bragr on 5/16/22, 10:49 PM
I'm seeing that option in my account admin page now too. I'm going to confirm mine is for personal use and see how it goes.
by purplepatrick on 5/17/22, 12:05 AM
So first they’re telling people they must upgrade, then they change their mind and add this option. However, people who have already upgraded because they thought it was the only option are getting screwed now, because they no longer are given this option. I feel like this warrants a complaint with a bunch of consumer protection agencies.
by akor on 5/17/22, 9:11 PM
Does anyone know if after switching to "personal use" if you can swap the domain? That's not allowed with the legacy edition so I'm guessing the answer is no but wondered if anyone tested that theory. So I want to switch to "personal" and then change the "primary domain".
by sfblah on 5/16/22, 11:03 PM
I transitioned my family domain name to a small nonprofit that I created to do donations. If you have such an entity, it's an easy way to opt out of this whole problem. I realize this doesn't apply to most people, but I'm just putting it here as an alternative.
by themadturk on 5/17/22, 1:48 AM
I'm happy to be able to keep one of my personal domains at Google...it's the one the whole family uses, except for me, and none of them wanted to move. My other domain is hosted at POBox.com, which is for all intents and purposes Fastmail.
by micromacrofoot on 5/16/22, 11:18 PM
If you had any illusions about how Google feels about users this seems to clear it up. Would have transitioned, but I moved away when they announced it as many others did.
Good riddance… feelings mutual I guess.
by GoOnThenDoTell on 5/17/22, 5:45 AM
I closed my 1 user my-domain email account due to this, and now I didnt even have to? Great thanks.
I’ll remember this when the GCP sales people call at work
by nix23 on 5/17/22, 7:45 AM
Thank you google, but i already made my own mailserver on vultr. Deliver-ability is perfect, rspam is just great and it's fast.
by lunatuna on 5/17/22, 12:20 AM
Big thanks to tekni5. I've been struggling with a move over to iCloud. I will still work through it, but it is no stress now.
by cglong on 5/16/22, 11:16 PM
Anyone know if this can be used by someone who never used G Suite Legacy but uses Workspace for personal purposes only?
by joaomeloplus on 5/17/22, 12:45 AM
i bought so many apps and games on my legacy account. they should let us migrate these to a gmail account.
by skewbone on 5/16/22, 11:31 PM
Does anyone know if there is a limit on the number of users with this free option?
by rendall on 5/17/22, 5:24 AM
I literally just yesterday pointed that domain at ProtonMail.
by alostpuppy on 5/17/22, 1:18 AM
Is there a good alternative to google photo?
by asd123124 on 5/16/22, 9:19 PM
meh. this is
exactly what was always available.
The catch is, as soon as you migrate you will lose your gvoice number, since that is not included in the "all free services will be migrated".
And then it will be too late to research alternatives as you lost your number and will start paying (and then realize your old number is long gone :)
by johndfsgdgdfg on 5/16/22, 10:33 PM
We need to rise against Google. Google keeps users hostages for more money. It shouldn't be tolerated under any circumstances.