this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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Me, who's had a Gmail account as my main email for twenty plus years. 😞
I've been meaning to switch off of Google for months now, but never had the time to properly research what exactly that entails
I was primarily using Gmail and Youtube Music and the switch was fairly easy. Apple Music was a better replacement than the other competitors, and Proton Mail was super easy. Paying for both makes me "not the product, but an actual customer". Forwarded Gmail to Proton in about 30 seconds, and replaced Chrome with Firefox. Duck Duck Go isn't a "perfect" replacement for Google Search, but it's good enough.
Proton looks pretty good, but all the paid Google services show that paying is not enough to be seen as “not the product, but an actual customer” these days.
Proton itself has no access to the encrypted content of your email. Also, they are not an ad company, so their product isn't you.
It's NOT a valid reason not to switch, but god that's a dumb name for a product. Again, I don't understand why I hate the name, but I do. Please help me.
Proton or DDG? For Proton, I use a custom domain for my email, so that was moot. DDG could have a better name, for sure.
Yepp, thought about DDG. Proton is a bit weird too, but I have my own domain as well, so that's not an issue.
Good luck on your journey away from Google, it’s worth the effort.
What name are you referring to?
Susan
Curious what you decide. I feel trapped. My Gmail has been my primary account for almost 20 years. With that kind of longevity, switching would be extremely disruptive.
When I did it I just forwarded my mails to the new service (fastmail) and changed mail address whenever a mail got forwarded in. When I didn't receive a forwarded mail for a year or so I deleted my old mail and never looked back.
If you use a password manager this get easier though, since you can just lookup where the old mail is used.
Never realized this was a benefit of password managers. Even happier I've been on Bitwarden a few years now.
I kept Gmail, but gradually switched over to proton. Eventually, year or two later, it's full of emails I don't glcare about. Start now and take it slow.
I've heard good things about proton. Considering switching to that as well. Other than heading so many places use your old email until you update it is there any reason you did it gradually?
No, that's the only reason. I didn't want to flood my new inbox with emails I don't need.
3 months later I finally started the process. Got Proton Unlimited and am slowly transitioning my Google drive over
Try to create a new email on a privacy respecting service and start with setting up email forwarding from Gmail to the new email. Then you just kinda slowly move your accounts over for a period of months or even years. I still keep my unused Gmail forwarding just in case.
Gmail is only 19 years old, but okay.
I've had it since it came out, so 19 years then I guess. Cut me some slack.