Solutions for Vodafone email refugees
Moving to a new email service isn’t difficult but it does involve making a few decisions, writes Pat Pilcher.
With Vodafone ending its email services, many Kiwis will be looking for a new option. Luckily, there are a lot of good free services available for anyone wanting a personal account. It’s more complicated for business users and they’re advised to get professional help.
Making the leap
Moving to a new email service isn’t difficult but it does involve making a few decisions.
But before doing that, make sure you import your emails and contacts from your old email account to your new one. Most email services have a help section or FAQ (frequently asked questions) that will show you how it’s done.
The nearly 250,000 Vodafone customers with email accounts have two options.
First, sign up for a new email service and then get Vodafone to forward emails from their old account to their new one. The advantage of this is that you’re unlikely to miss an email in the future. The downside of this is that you need to stay with Vodafone for your broadband/mobile.
You could go cold turkey, but I wouldn’t recommend it. This would see you signing up for a new email service and then sending a mass email out to all your email contacts in your vodafone email account so they know your new address.
This may result in a lot of bounced emails and even a few annoyed contacts. You’d also need to contact your bank and other important organisations and give them your new email details.
It’s a time-consuming task and you run the risk of missing some future emails. That said, going with an email provider that isn’t tied to your ISP means you can change providers at any time without affecting your email.
Another issue to consider is what should your new email address be? The most important consideration here is that it is both easy for you to remember and will also signify that it belongs to you.
Instead of a non-descriptive jimsthingimajigs@emailaddress.com, use a more descriptive jim.smith@emailaddress.com will let your contacts know that it is you, their old friend instead of a cyber criminal intent on emptying their bank accounts.
Choosing a service
Choosing an email service isn’t tricky as you just need to focus on several factors.
If you’re a Microsoft fan and a regular user of Office/Windows, Outlook is your best bet. If you live on Android and Google is your goto for Calendaring, editing documents, then Gmail is a nobrainer. Yahoo is another well-featured option and Tutanota is ideal for those that want security and privacy.
Here are a few to consider:
Gmail
Gmail’s minimalist design means It’ll work fine with most web browsers (or you can set it up a dedicated email app on your phone or computer). Another side benefit of its sparse design is that it is intuitive to use.
One of the nicest things with Gmail is the use of Google’s search capabilities. Need to find that email from Jim about the thingamajig? No problem, just type your search requirements into the search bar and it will pull up all relevant emails.
Unlike a lot of other email services, Gmail doesn’t use Folders to organise messages. Instead, you label emails. It’s a slightly different take on keeping email organised, but it works well.
Gmail’s service will also automatically filter and sort emails into Primary (the ones you’ll see when you log into Gmail), Social (Facebook and Twitter) and Promotions (sales ads). This is done accurately and automatically so you don’t have to do a thing. It’s a handy feature.
It’s also great at detecting and filtering spam, but the targeted adverts based on the content of your emails can be a tad unnerving.
Gmail has 15GB of free storage. You can receive emails up to 50MB and send emails up to 25MB.
For Vodafone email refugees, Gmail can also handle email imported from other email accounts. This means that both Vodafone emails and contacts can be imported (if done before the November 30 shutdown), which makes transitioning to Gmail a lot less painful.
Outlook
Outlook’s interface resembles a traditional email app you’ve probably already used on a PC. There’s a folder list on the left, while most of Outlook’s screen consists of a list of the emails from whichever folder you’re currently looking at (which by default is the inbox). You can also have a preview pane on display (which handily allows you to check out the contents of an email at a glance).
Folders are used to organise emails and they can be dragged into specific folders. Rules can easily be created that’ll automatically sort incoming mail into specific folders.
There’s also a Quick views section that will automatically categorise emails. This helps transform your daily email deluge into something a little more manageable. Outlook comes with 5GB of storage.
Cleaning up is also easy thanks to the sweep function. It can delete all emails from a nominated sender, or even emails older than a pre-specified date. Like Gmail, you can import emails/contacts from your Vodafone email.
Yahoo Mail
Yahoo mail has been around for eons and its maturity makes it a polished option. The browser-based version should be familiar to anyone who’s spent even a smidgen of time working with email apps.
On the left-hand side of the screen, there’s a folder pane (which shows email folders such as inbox, sent, spam, trash etc) while a list of emails is displayed in the centre pane. An optional preview pane can be added too.
As with Outlook and Gmail, you can create folders for keeping your email organised. Emails can be dragged into folders and filters can be set up to sort incoming emails into relevant folders. Like Google and Microsoft, Yahoo has also put some spit and polish into its email search capabilities. You can search emails based on subject, the text in the body of the email and so on.
There are other nifty features too. Yahoo can also import email from other accounts and you can even create disposable email addresses for subscribing to online services without running the risk of receiving vast piles of spam. Last (but by no means least), Yahoo wins in the storage stakes too. It comes with 1TB.
Tutanota
This German email service may only offer just 1GB of email storage for free, but all emails sent from it are encrypted.
Its interface is basic and the free version is restricted, especially when compared to the premium version (which gives users the ability use mailbox rules and other features such a multiple email aliases), but Tutanota is ideal for those for whom security is a priority.