Connecting with external IMAP account

[X-Ryl669]

I don't know how hard it will be, but if Tutanota was able to fetch mails from my other IMAP account, I think it'll instantly become the best/mainly used open source email client.

Currently K9-Mail interface is very very disappointing (to say the least) and, even through they are efforts to improve it, they've still a long way to go.
Other solution implies having an intermediate server that reads your email/stores your credentials (all proprietary software BTW) which is, at least for me, unacceptable.

Tutanota fills a current gap in this (kudos for E2E encryption) and if I could run a server on my side that would fetch my mails from all my accounts, encrypt them, and send them to Tutanota so they would appear in the mail list, then I would never come back.

It's related to #521 (support for multiple account).

[musicmissionary]

This would be a tremendous help. I am sure that many potential users have email accounts they need to maintain. To be able to manage that in Tutanota would mean it could become THE email client for many.

[Aneyrin]

Yes this feature will be very useful for many users. Any plans to implement it to Tutanota?

[charlag]

It's quite some effort but it's on roadmap so stay tuned!

[X-Ryl669]

Currently, there's also SimpleEmail in F-Droid that works correctly. It's much more simple to configure than K9, does not consume as much battery as K9 and also have a nice material UI.
While the requested feature is implemented, it's worth taking a look.

Disclaimer: I helped in the UI change to look "material" in this software.

[Aneyrin]

It's quite some effort but it's on roadmap so stay tuned!

Is it in roadmap for 2019? We are looking forward for this feature very much!

[charlag]

No ETA yet but we will try to stick to the order in which things are listed:
https://tutanota.com/de/roadmap

[ploguus]

Yes please! This would be VERY useful.

[v12lover]

No expert here, but right away I would rather not see this happen. Wouldn't this lessen security of the current client side only encryption setup? If Tutanota used SMTP to pull down your emails then how would their current proprietary RSA encryption be maintained on the emails in transmission? anyways, forget even that... ok so take Tutanota's proprietary RSA, in plain English then, how would this then be made useable by any given SMTP client, given on PC or smartphone? Or browser plug-in anyway, and still be as safe as the current Tuta? Because once you're out of Tutanota's software, that's it, you're in clear text world!! That's the limit of what I know, but regardless, I'd rather not see Tutanota going down this road.

Tutanota is already researching quantum technology in terms of email and here we are still talking about bringing in SMTP/IMAP support? Where's the perspective on this?

Anyway...

[Silmathoron]

@charlag is the plan only to make external accounts available from the Tutanota apps or would you also provide a bridge to use with other mail clients such as Thunderbird (like what Protonmail provides)?

(and slightly off topic, and perhaps stupid question, but is there any plan to cooperate with Protonmail? for instance to make it possible to send e2e-encrypted mails from one service to the other, if it is at all possible given the different algorithms?)

[charlag]

@Silmathoron the current idea is to add IMAP support to out client, not the other way around. There are no plans for the bridge currently but it's not completely rejected either.

Current plan for interop with other mail providers is #198

[tukiab]

+1

[jarrard]

Yeah this would be useful, and if someone wants to make a thunderbird plugin to ensure better security for tutanota then it would be great and solve some concerns. (open source app obviously)

[armhub]

We decided that we will not support displaying other provider's mailboxes in Tutanota. This would not offer any additional confidentiality because the emails would stay unencrypted with some other provider. Tutanota is not just another mail client but a fully encrypted mail service. So we will focus on functionality in Tutanota.

[Legogris]

@armhub it really would be a boon for those running their own mail servers - as there is currently a shortage of e-mail client in iOS, Tutanota would be a great candidate to fill that spot.

I imagine it would be a great channel for people to discover Tutanota's service if Tutanota was the best iOS client pick for self-hosted e-mail. These users are very overlapping with your target user base.