An open-source email application will finally be making its way to Android. Users of the iOS alternative will finally gain access to the Thunderbird Android email app, an open-sourced application that supports end-to-end encryption.
Thunderbird Will Make Its Way to Android with the Help of K-9 Mail
According to the story by ZDNet, thanks to the K-9 Mail Android email app project, users will finally be able to use the Thunderbird app not just on the desktop but also on Android devices. The project resulted in an app for the open-sourced email project to be used on Android devices.
The Mozilla Foundation moved Thunderbird to its subsidiary two years ago. The open-sourced email solution came under MZLA Technologies Corporation, just like how Firefox was moved under the foundation's subsidiary, Mozilla Corporation, from the initial Mozilla Foundation.
Project Adds OpenPGP End-to-End Encryption and a Mobile App
Moving Thunderbird to its subsidiary allowed the project to create its own path. On top of this, the project added new features, including OpenPGP end-to-end encryption along with a mobile app that ZDNet described as "long-awaited."
The email service's team revealed that talks of an email app version of the service started as far as 2018. The talks were held between Ryan Lee Sipes, the product manager of Thunderbird, and Christian Ketterer, K-9's lead maintainer.
Thunderbird to be Added to Existing K-9 Mail App
K-9 Mail is an already existing email app on the Google Play Store with five million downloads. Instead of building the app from scratch, both parties plan on merging Thunderbird's systems and features with the existing app.
Four years later, the best decision, according to the two, was to simply have K-9 join the open-sourced service instead of having to build an app from the start. As per Thunderbird, a lot of users have asked them for a mobile experience for the open-sourced email service.
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K-9 Mail is in Charge of Implementing the Email Experience for Mobile Users
The team then announced that they plan to do this by helping K-9 provide an Android version of the Thunderbird email open-source service. K-9 is tasked with supplementing the open-sourced service and improving the email experience for mobile users.
As per the Thunderbird team, their commitment toward the desktop version of the email service remains the same, and the team is committed to making the most out of both worlds. As per ZDNet, this means that K-9 will be in charge of taking the name and branding of the original service.
Before this becomes possible, K-9 will still have to align with the visual appearance and feature set of Thunderbird. In order to do this, the team says that they are devoting finances and development in order to improve K-9 Mail continually.
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Written by Urian B.
