From Jan 2026: Gmail drops Gmailify and POP support

Google has announced that, starting January 2026, Gmail will stop supporting both Gmailify and the POP mail protocol. This affects users who relied on Gmail to fetch messages from third-party accounts via POP or to apply Gmail features (spam filtering, inbox categories, advanced search) to external accounts using Gmailify.

What changes

• POP: Gmail will no longer fetch mail from external accounts using the POP protocol via the Gmail web interface. Users should switch to IMAP or use their email provider’s native client if they want continued syncing and retrieval.
• Gmailify: The feature that applied Gmail’s spam protection, categories, and other Gmail tools to third-party accounts (e.g., Yahoo, Outlook) will be discontinued.

Who is affected

Anyone using Gmail to access external mailboxes via POP or the Gmailify feature. If you use an email client configured with IMAP or access your provider directly, impact is limited — but features provided by Gmailify will no longer apply to those external addresses in Gmail.

What you can do

• Enable and use IMAP on your external accounts and configure an email client (or Gmail app where IMAP remains supported) for syncing across devices.
• Consider migrating important messages to a Gmail account directly if you want to keep Gmail’s spam filtering and search features.
• Export your data if needed (use your provider’s export tools or Google Takeout for Gmail data).
• Check your provider’s support docs for POP/IMAP settings or consider switching to a modern client that supports IMAP/Exchange.

Sources

• Official Google support notice: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/16604719?hl=en
• Tech coverage: https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20251001-gmail-gmailify-pop-support-end/

Have questions or need help migrating? Leave a comment below.