K-9 Mail app will become Thunderbird's Android email client

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

The developers of the open source Thunderbird email client confirmed today that the open source Android email app K-9 Mail will become Thunderbird for Android.

Thunderbird product and business development manager Ryan Lee Sipes confirmed in May 2022 that Thunderbird would become available for Android soon. The release would fill a gap, as Thunderbird has been available for desktop operating systems only up until now. The Android version enables Thunderbird users to sync data between desktop versions and their mobile Android devices.

The development of an Android email client from the ground up was one of the options that the team discussed, but it would have been a large project that would have required considerable effort and resources. The idea to collaborate with an existing open source email project for Android was born in 2018, when Sipes started talking to Christian Ketterer, the K-9 Mail project maintainer, about potential collaborations.

K-9 Mail "aligns perfectly with Thunderbird's values of using open standards, respecting the user, and enabling power users with unmatched customization" according to Sipes. Ketterer has joined the Thunderbird team already, "bringing along his expertise and experience with mobile platforms", and the K-9 Mail application.

Thunderbird will "devote financial and development resources to improving K-9 Mail", including an improved account setup, something which Thunderbird received already in a recent update, improved folder management, support for message filters, and the option to sync data between desktop and mobile clients. The team expects to introduce synchronization support in the Summer of 2023.

K-9 Mail will turn into Thunderbird for Android eventually, but this won't happen overnight. The client will undergo visual changes to align it closely with Thunderbird.

K-9 Mail remains available, but users who have installed it will experience transformations in the coming months and years to align the email application closely with Thunderbird's brand and feature set.

The latest interface update has seen mixed reviews. Some users who use multiple email accounts in the application stated that they find it less intuitive to use. Others like its open source nature and that development is financed by donations.

K-9 Mail app will become Thunderbird's Android email client - gHacks Tech News

The developers of the open source Thunderbird email client confirmed today that the open source Android email app K-9 Mail will become Thunderbird for Android.

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[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Christian Ketterer (also known as ‘cketti’), the maintainer of K-9, has already joined the Thunderbird staff. Mozilla said in its announcement, “Thunderbird will devote financial and development resources to improving K-9 Mail, adding new features, and user interface enhancements.” The goal is for K-9 Mail to be rebranded as Thunderbird for Android, once enough progress has been made.

Mozilla’s current roadmap for K-9 includes improved folder management, the same account auto-configuration as Thunderbird on desktop, message filters, and some level of synchronization between desktop and mobile using Firefox Sync. Thunderbird’s non-email features (calendars, tasks, feeds, etc.) won’t be in the mobile app, at least initially — the team is “still debating how best to achieve that.”

Since K-9 Mail will slowly become Thunderbird for Android over the next several months, you can technically get Thunderbird on Android right now by installing K-9. However, Mozilla is warning people that the interface “will probably change a few times” as development progresses.

Thunderbird also plans to offer an app for iPhone and iPad, but there’s still no (public) plan for that yet. K-9 Mail is not available for iPhone and iPad, so Mozilla will either have to start from scratch for Apple’s platforms, or acquire/fork another mobile app to rebrand.

This Is How Mozilla Thunderbird Mail Will Come To Android

The Mozilla Thunderbird email application is having a resurgence right now, with development ramping up and an expanded team behind the project. Mozilla has now confirmed how Thunderbird will be ported to Android.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

K-9 Mail (future Thunderbird for Android) adds OAuth 2.0 support

A new update for the open source Android email client K-9 Mail introduces support for OAuth 2.0. The long-requested feature adds authentication support for Google's Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and personal Microsoft accounts.

K-9 Mail, which will become Thunderbird for Android in the near future, is a popular mobile email client for Android. The app will stick to the original name for now, but will be renamed eventually. New features and improvements will be introduced before that happens to make sure Thunderbird desktop users have a positive user experience.

One of the main issues that users of K-9 Mail ran into was missing OAuth support, as it prevented Gmail from working with the client. Google made OAuth 2 mandatory for Gmail, dropping support for other authentication options.

The new K-9 Mail release for Android addresses the issue. Once updated, K-9 Mail users may once again integrate Gmail with the client to use all of the client's functionality with their Gmail accounts. The other supported services work with OAuth as well now.

K-9 Mail 6.2 is already available on Google Play and the project's GitHub website. Users who have installed the email app via Google Play should receive the update automatically, provided that automatic updates are enabled via Google Play. The K-9 Mail listing on F-Droid has not been updated, but this will happen in the near future.

A pre-release version of K-Mail 6.2 was released two days ago. One of its changes "made the transition of existing Gmail accounts to OAuth 2.0 a bit easier" according to the changelog. K-9 Mail users who have configured Gmail to authentication using other schemes, e.g. POP3, need to switch the scheme to OAuth 2.0.

The latest version of the email application adds an unsubscribe action to the menu when viewing messages that have an unsubscribe header.

K-9 Mail (future Thunderbird for Android) adds OAuth 2.0 support - gHacks Tech News

A new update for the open source Android email client K-9 Mail introduces support for OAuth 2.0

www.ghacks.net

 

[silversurfer]

Future Thunderbird for Android, K-9 Mail, passed security audit with flying colors​

K-9 Mail has undergone an "extensive security audit" recently by 7ASecurity. Jason Evangelho of the Thunderbird team notes that six auditors of 7ASecurity have analyzed K-9 Mail to "dentify and address any potential security or stability issues". The security audit focused on threat modelling, fuzzing and the software supply chain.

The security researchers found no "zero high-risk vulnerabilities" in the email client for Android. A total of 10 low and medium ranked vulnerabilities were found during the audit; more than half identified potential Denial of Service attacks.

The auditors furthermore suggested security hardening in 10 areas as proactive protections against potential future exploits.

7ASecurity concluded that "K-9 Mail defended itself well against a broad range of attack vectors" and that the app "provided a number of positive impressions" during the assignment.

These positive impressions included the following ones:

• K-9 Mail is not sending sensitive information to third-parties.
• The email app prevents leaks via log messages and Android backups.
• No hardcoded credentials are used-
• K-9 Mail hardens WebViews.
• The application was "found to be resilient against Man-In-The-Middle (MitM) attacks against encrypted communications as well as deeplink attack vectors".

Users interested in the full report may access the PDF document on the Thunderbird website here. The majority of issues have been addressed already.

The audit marks an important step for the Thunderbird on Android project, as it can now focus on turning K-9 Mail into Thunderbird for Android.

Future Thunderbird for Android, K-9 Mail, passed security audit with flying colors - gHacks Tech News

The future Thunderbird for Android application, K-9 Mail, has passed a security audit with flying colors.

www.ghacks.net