For some time now, we’ve known that the Thunderbird email client for Android would be based on the popular K-9 Mail app, which has historically shared the same goals as Mozilla’s email client. In June 2022, we announced the merging of forces and intentions between Mozilla Thunderbird and K-9 Mail, also highlighting the current shortcomings of the “alternative” email client for the Android platform.

K-9 Mail is free and open

Among the various options for managing email on Android, Gmail is undoubtedly one of the most widely used, along with Outlook. Both not only support Google and Microsoft accounts (both personal and business) but also allow the configuration and use of third-party email addresses.

Unlike Gmail, Outlook, and other proprietary email clients, K-9 Mail is free and open-source software distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. As confirmation of the close relationship established with Mozilla, the K-9 Mail project has already been renamed Thunderbird Android on GitHub.

K-9 Mail embraces Thunderbird account configuration on Android

Mozilla developers are evolving K-9 Mail for Android with the “philosophy” of Thunderbird. Starting from the latest version of K-9 Mail (release 6.800), the email account configuration process becomes much simpler, just like it does on Thunderbird for desktop systems.

The email account configuration mechanism of K-9 Mail was rather outdated and only facilitated automatic setup for major email providers. Android app users were often required to manually set up account parameters: this meant they had to search for server details and other information to start sending and receiving messages with K-9 Mail on their Android devices.

Mozilla re-configurated K-9 Mail

Now, instead, Mozilla communicates that they have completely rewritten the account configuration module. K-9 Mail uses the automatic configuration mechanism of Thunderbird and supports a range of email providers:

• simply enter the email credentials
• choose a name to assign to the profile
• define the account synchronization interval.

With a previous update, K-9 Mail has already obtained OAuth support: this means that the email client allows setting up Gmail, Outlook, and other provider addresses without even entering a username and password. Simply obtain an authorization token via the Web and you’re good to go.

There are still some unresolved issues Aside from the excellent addition of the guided and automated procedure for configuring new email accounts. Mozilla admits that in the new release of K-9 Mail, there are still some lingering issues.