With that being said, K-9 is the best Android app I've seen for mail that isn't made by Google.
edit: it seems the work has already been done, thanks for the correction.
I've been running the betas since more than a year without any problems whatsoever. (If you don't need push obviously)
I definitely struggle to udnerstand why IMAP IDLE is critical for a release.
Edit: Oh, probably a minSDK force - i.e. the cost of standing still in mobile development.
Edit: oh, randomly spotted this:
> A major factor was the API level requirement by Google Play. It required us to make changes to internals of the app in order to be able to publish updates via the Play Store.
I don't get the problem. Why not do a release? If google doesn't want the hard work and updates yet, fine, you can still tag a new release and people can use f-droid, download the apk, whatever right? (I'm using it via f-droid, thought most people would be doing that since it's an open source client with graphics from the 2009, the kind of thing you only use as foss fan).
Historically, Apple gives you about a year before you have to compile against the latest SDK, and Google gave you a lot longer.
However, recently, both have become more aggressive about requiring new versions to be compiled against the latest SDKs.
Thus you can't do a "proper" release without moving up to the latest SDK.
Compiling against the latest SDK often breaks things, especially for an app which does a lot of things in the background.
This is part of the "cost of staying still" in mobile app development, which is both hard to predict, and can be very expensive.
The functionality is present in the latest stable version, but needs to be reimplemented in the new version. As a user I would be upset if the app was updated and that feature taken away, even if it was only temporary.
Installed it from Github, it wanted me to pay for putting a colour on my account(??) and it will remind me of something something.
Nah man...don't do that if you actually want to sell a pro version. Just state it upfront and I will consider it. putting it in while I'm already adding an account and letting me read some long list of features I won't have if I continue right in the middle of the configuration is a dark pattern to me.
They lost a potential customer here.
OTOH the "free-tier" is what attracts your interest as bait, probably accounts for the number of app installs visible on the store too etc.
That definitely looks like the non-pro version is meant to be a free-to-use product.
> Tried to install it from F-Droid, didn't work.
Developers get very little say in what version F-Droid builds and ships [1]. I think there are some very minor differences between the F-Droid build and the regular (open source) build when it comes to OAuth API keys - centralised mail providers often don't agree to the keys being used in those builds made by third parties.
> Nah man...don't do that if you actually want to sell a pro version. Just state it upfront and I will consider it.
Not really sure how much more the developer could do here to make it clear - the app description [2] states it contains in-app purchases (at the top). The 5th line of the description says "Almost all features are free to use, but to maintain and support the app in the long term, not every feature can be for free. See below for a list of pro features.", and there's a full list of pro feaatures lower down the description.
Not really sure if I would agree this is a dark pattern as such - I've seen far worse store listings that don't call out "pro" features until you start using the app, and discover 90% of the advertised features are paid.
Maybe I have more sympathy for open source developers, but I think it's getting increasingly difficult for them to compete with the commercial apps that are "free" (with data mining), or are paid. Looking at how regularly updated FE is, and how responsive the developer is, I imagine it could be a monthly paid subscription, based on how much time many people spend using email, and it would probably be more than worth it. Certainly looking at SV SaaS pricing, it feels that FairEmail is probably very much under-priced. And open-source too, so people really are just paying for convenience.
Comparing it with hey's email service + client at 99 USD/year, it's not easy for open source apps to compete, but it's in our collective interest for there to be good, credible open source options available.
[1] https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-5-0-fairemail-fully-f... - commenting on not knowing when F-Droid will ship that version.
[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.faircode.em...
K9, to me, is just too much options and features. A lot of which needed tweaking and tuning, and were not something one could simply ignore.
Good example, a recent release [1] fixes a couple of bugs that look to have originated from upstream Android projects, and added some new support for removal of "tracking" parameters from Facebook URLs.
I'd agree with your comment that stripping out donations is "allowed", but "not nice" - I can only sympathize with the developer of FairEmail - it is clear he puts a huge amount of time into an app that has no "covert monetisation" like most apps.
I was never particularly happy with other email apps and privacy (especially not the commercial closed source ones which receive your emails on their own server back-end, but keep this part quiet in their description, just to make push easier) - for me, at least, FairEmail delivers the same or better, but all entirely on-device. There's even some basic learning-based on-device support for sorting mail automatically into folders (spam, FYI stuff, etc). That's for me the spirit of FairEmail - doing what others do server-side, on-device, without spying.
But it is clearly a challenge to make money from this, and I think (based on FAQs) that the developer has a struggle with those who think that everything should be free.
No relation to the app, just a happy user that likes to pay for open source apps rather than become the "product".
If i ever pick up a librephone, pinephone, or something that can be switched to another OS, i'd like to try it again, even though i don't like using phones in landscape mode anymore. Maemo raised the bar so high on landscape orientation user interfaces that everything else is a joke.
TBH, that's actually a good thing. Material Design was a mistake.