K-9 Mail is back (5.800 release)

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Hi, I’m also one of the people who signed up to the forum over this update.

I’ve been using the new UI through betas ever since they became available (two or so years if I remember correctly). While I agree that the account switch UI isn’t intuitive for those that don’t want to use unified inbox (+ some other concerns raised by others like filters), I do think that this UI change is a huge step forward for k-9. I feel like many of these concerns can be easily fixed by developers (like by adding an option to jump directly into account switcher by pressing back button etc).

I’ve also had some concerns when I first moved to the new UI, but over time I got used, and last week when I switched phones I found myself specifically going for 5.8 as I couldn’t stand 5.6 UI+UX anymore.

For those who dislike these changes on first sight, I recommend giving it some time to see if you like it or not, perhaps you’ll fall in love with it like I did.

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Yes i am also very disappointed with this part of k9 now

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As I posted in another thread, I used the SINGLE buttons for selecting READ, UNREAD, and STARRED messages so I could edit the UNREAD messages and DELETE the ones I did not want (About 200 - 300 a day!). Never had to press more than 3 times to delete ALL of my unwanted, junk E-mails. For this reason, please BRING BACK the old UI.

Thank you!

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I usually don’t abandon a piece of software after a wonky update - everyone has their ups and downs. It’s mostly the developers’ mindset that drives me away. I’ve seen this happen a couple of times aready with other projects - VLC’s main developer for example doesn’t want to support filenames with square brackets inside of playlists - something that works basically everywhere else - and he’s absolutely stubborn about it, even though it causes inconvenience for some users and would be easily fixable. Instead of a civil discussion, I was told to shut it and accept their way of doing things.

Over the last 14 years, I’ve developed a web service for my old employer, which is still being used by thousands of people, so I know what it’s like to have a UI change affect the daily lives of many. While studying, I also majored in UX design, so I’m not entirely clueless about that topic.

We are not @cketti’s customers or bosses, it’s his project. OBVIOUSLY he can do with it whatever he likes - and with the latest version, he has demonstrated that he will do just that, even though I wish he didn’t. His absence in the discussion about the new version is just as concerning to me, as his closing of the thread about why the account overview was useful after just 18 hours, with a closing note that basically said “I’ve seen enough” (whatever that might mean for us).

One thing I learned from my aforementioned web service is, that people are passionate about software they like, everyone for their own reasons. You can rarely change anything because there will be someone complaining. The only way to make sure everyone’s (mostly) happy is to provide customization options that allow people to pick what they want, but customization in general seems to be going the way of the dodo lately. Another example of that is Windows 11 removing the capability to un-group task bar buttons. Sigh.

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Agree.
At least v5.600 still works for me.
It hopefully will so certainly for another couple of years. So it’s not the end of the world.
Case closed for me then.

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I’m in totally agreement, with this new UI my thumb will have to grow by at least 2 in just reach the delete button. Rolling back, what a pain.

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K-9 used to be unique, now it’s like every other email app out there. So why then should users choose k-9 over the competition? Sadly, there isn’t any reason.

Loss of the overview screen and buttons on the bottom are absolute deal breakers. k-9 is now wasting space on my phone.

I have small thumbs and phones area only getting bigger. Material design with everything at the top left makes it impossible to use one handed. The old design with navigation buttons and common commands at the bottom was much better and allowed for fast single hand usage.

Every email app has unified mailboxes, if I wanted that I could have used a different app, but I used k-9 for it’s better handling of multiple email accounts. Now that is gone. Unified mailboxes blurs the line between accounts too much, there needs to be absolute separation like before so that I don’t confuse which accounts I am looking at. I have many accounts for many different jobs/companies/uses. Having them all together doesn’t make any sense. Having a single portal to see the activity of each account and giving quick access to the ones I care about in that moment is what was good about k-9. Some accounts are really noisy and I have notifications turned off for them and in the unified view they overtake everything else.

I hope the developer back tracks on some changes. But I have no hope.

EDIT:

Also trying to get the font sizes the same as before, as the new UI makes everything huge. But the font selection just says default, doesn’t say what the deafult size was. Making it very hard to replicate what the old UI did.

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New UI looks great IMO, but I can’t find the encryption settings. Encryption is the primary reason I use K9. Am I crazy, or was this removed?

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Settings » Account » End-To-End encryption :slight_smile:

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Congratulations to the new release. But I agree the UI update is a desaster. Moving the buttons make the one finger usage impossible. These upgrade kills the unique selling point from k9mail and make it interchangeable with other free tools like gmail.

I’m another user who just reinstalled v5.600 and happy with that. Please support the 5.6 version for longer. Thanks.

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Just chiming in to say I HATE the new interface. And yes, I did find the list of accounts, but when I tap an account, I have to tap AGAIN to see the Inbox. And then when I hit the Back button, it exits the app altogether. WTF? WHO thought this was a good idea? I realize this is a free app, and as such, we get what we pay for. I would happily pay $$ to have the old interface back, but from the comments I’ve been reading, the developers have no intention of bringing it back. I have used and loved and recommended K-9 for years, but now it looks like it’s time to find something new.

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I would also pay to have the old UI back.

Bring the back end improvements so that k-9 works properly with modern android but with the old UI.

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The wording of @mscheaf might be blunt, but I’m afraid you’re wrong. This UI change waisted one of the main apps for my work. I would be happy to pay for a commercial, carefully supported product that resembles the k-9 mail of the recent past…

Basically the only decent / professional mail client for android is gone now. With 20+ accounts, both of totally different clients that I work for, mailboxes of my own company and private ones, handling a few hundred mails per day, I now literally will have to carry my laptop with me at all times and find spots every one or two hours to sit down and go through my mail (using emClient btw) in stead of quickly checking my phone. This is not a small inconvenience, it will change my work considerably.

And judging the storm of messages here I suspect I’m not the only one.

That said, it’s of course wonderful that people work on k-9 for the community, enhancing the functionality and fixing bugs! If only they’d learn from the phrase ‘if it ain’t broken don’t fix it’ …

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Means: Shut up.
That last message showed me too, that to sign up here to give my comment (which was deleted) to help save my beloved app was not worth the time. But at least helped discover other app.

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I thought I had added this to the now closed topic on the account overview, but must have missed the submit button. What I have to say fits here as well as anywhere else.

Besides K9, my other go-to android app is RealCalc. This hasn’t had an update since 2015, yet still seems to be collecting 5-star reviews & I see recent (July 2021) responses to reviews by the developer.

I would compare K9 to RealCalc & say that both apps provide something that is very useful to very many people & just works with a simple uncluttered interface. Both seem to have continued gathering downloads despite no updates & both have a high rating. A paid-for version of RealCalc grants a few additional features. While not really needing the additional features I bought the paid-for version as a recognition and contribution to the developer for their work in producing such a powerful, useful tool. K9 on the other hand has nearly lost me as a user & recommender with V5.8. I will continue as a user of 5.6, but certainly won’t be recommending it to any others, unless they want to side-load v5.6. If K9 was a paid-for app I’d be requesting a refund as V5.8 should be at least V6, or possibly a completely separate app (K9-Bling?)

The fact that yesterday (26/7) 20% of the total posts on the forum were from the preceding 24 hours (& a quick scan of the topics & posts showed a generally unhappy user base) suggests the developer(s) misread their users.

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I agree to a lot of users: I use more accounts than only one and therefore the overview is missing. I.e. how many messages are starred in one folder.
Even in the folder itself: how many messages are unread?
If I mark one or more messages, I need to move them to Spam without opening them.
The nnew Design is nice but for me: “form follows function!”. So please add the missing things asap.

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I have been reading all the replies here and cannot put myself in @cketti’s shoes, but I imagine it must be frustrating. To have put in so much work in what was planned as a major overhaul only to see a cacophony of outraged responses decrying it and claiming that everything has been ruined. That’s got to be disheartening.

While I certainly count myself among the chorus of voices who believes the new UI is a huge step in the wrong direction, I have tried to spend the better part of today assembling my thoughts and even going so far as to take screenshots in order to provide both concrete examples of how some of the changes have harmed accessibility and productivity in order to offer constructive criticism and not simply erupt with emotion and outrage.

(I’m not trying to throw shade at those who have come here to vent. It may not make it easy on the developers to see those posts, but these are all people who have had one of the most critical apps on their phone essentially taken away from them and those users have to turn somewhere with their grief and anger. Your pain is valid, but I’m trying a different approach here with my upcoming posts)

Next few replies will hopefully be able to attach images so I can explain some specifics. I would ask, in fact plead, that @cketti may take the time to review my comments.

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Use the search function or click the very first topic in the list of topics: How to downgrade to an earlier version?

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notifications
notifications1920×1910 187 KB

OK we’ll start kind of small. You can dismiss this if you wish but it’s a big deal to some of us.

The old notification icon was great because it was unique. I could always tell when I had email.

The new notification icon uses a generic small rounded “envelope” that 100% matches the same icon used by other super common apps. These screenshots show me receiving email and also having received Twitter Direct Messages. Up in the black-and-white notification bar they are now indistinguishable.

[update: i have more screenshots to share so that we can continue this discussion, but i am at the forum limit for a new user to post. hopefully i can contribute to the discussion more soon]

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Rather than be a typical user and hate all change at first sight, I decided to try it out.

I have several major issues with it. The main issue is the lack of the account overview screen. I absolutely need this screen. The unified inbox is exactly what I specifically want to avoid. I came here to see if there were options I wasn’t seeing, but I found this thread and the thread regarding the account summary page. Then I saw that thread was closed. That thread closure, and the apparent response of the developer regarding feedback, is worse than any of the UI changes.

I’m a developer myself, and I hate when users revolt against change simply because it’s different. So I understand what the developer is going through, but the attitude when faced with valid, helpful feedback is disappointing.

Regardless, I’ll post my feedback here.

For the account summary page:
I need this for my use case because my accounts are very different in terms of priority, email frequency, and email volume. The unified inbox does not work for me, and will never work for me. I have one account that gets a handful of emails a month, and I need the latest emails to stay in the top of the inbox (or the default display folder in K-9). I have another account that gets a few dozen a day, and again, I need the latest emails to be in the top of the inbox. I have another account that gets hundreds or thousands of emails a day. I need the notifications and unread counts for that one.

The unified inbox will never work for me precisely because it mixes messages from my various accounts and keeps the latest messages, across all accounts, at the top. I would never see the latest messages from my slower / lower-frequency accounts in the unified inbox because the faster / higher-frequency accounts would push those messages off of the list.

I also depend on the unread counts. I don’t use the star feature, but I know many others that do use this (in various email clients).

I’m also strongly in the habit of using the back button to get to the account overview screen.

I know I’ll get used to the other UI changes over time, but the lack of the account overview screen is a real deal breaker. If it doesn’t come back as an option in the near future, I may have to leave. I will stick around and hope that it gets added back. It’s still sort of there if you use the hamburger menu thing, but that’s not the same and it’s definitely not user-friendly to get to., especially if I plan on getting there hundreds of times a day.

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