Three years is a long time to go without an update for an app but now users of the K-9 Mail can breathe a sigh of relief. The email app, one of the most popular alternatives to Gmail, has finally announced a stable release after three years of mostly beta updates. K-9 Mail stable update version 5.8 has finally dropped and is now available on the Google Play Store. The changes include a user interface redesign and some changes to what OS can run it as well as fixes and improvements.
While most people probably use the Gmail app, those who want more power features probably look for alternatives and K-9 Mail is one of the most popular. But the past three years saw the app only release beta updates so the news that it now has a stable update is definitely good news. First and foremost, the user interface has been redesigned and the developers expect both users who will love it and hate it so they’re saying “you’re welcome and we’re sorry” in advance.
The new version will only now run on Android 5.0 devices and newer. They’ve also made the necessary changes to this new version so periodic background sync and Push will now be more reliable. However, bad news for those that have WebDAV accounts as you will not be able to set up new accounts. The existing accounts will still work “for now” but support for accounts, in general, have been deprecated.
This stable update also adds support for Autocrypt setup message and encrypted subjects, as well as some improvements and bug fixes related to end-to-end encryption. You can also now install external media but only if you’re running Android 6 or newer with adopted storage. The bad news for those fond of using keyboard shortcuts for menu items is that it has removed support since they conflicted with system shortcuts.
Of course, a major update also brings with it a lot of bug fixes, internal changes and improvements and maybe some unhappy users. But as with a lot of updates, people will eventually get used to it. If you’re using K-9 Mail, update it now to the latest version through the Google Play Store.
