Google is killing Gmail’s basic HTML view (but not Gmail) in 2024

Update: You may be here because you heard Google is “sunsetting Gmail” this year, as a fastspreading hoax online has it. The hoax purports to show an email from Google saying that “the journey of Gmail is coming to a close.”

Rest easy, Gmail isn’t going anywhere, but one way of accessing it is, as you can read about below. Most will have been defaulted to the “new” Gmail view long ago, so unless you have been specidcally requesting the “basic HTML” view, nothing should change for you.

Another day, another Google product goes to the graveyard.

The company is sunsetting Gmail’s basic HTML view, which allows users to look at their emails in a bare-bones state, starting January 2024.

The company updated its support page to re8ect that Gmail will automatically switch to the Standard view after the deadline date. Users on Hacker News posted that they got an email from Google signaling the end of the feature.

“We’re writing to let you know that the Gmail Basic HTML view for desktop web and mobile web will be disabled starting early January 2024. The Gmail Basic HTML views are previous versions of Gmail that were replaced by their modern successors 10+ years ago and do not include full

Gmail feature functionality,” the email reads.

Even today, when you try the access the HTML version, Google shows a message saying that the version is designed for “slower connections and legacy browsers” and asks you to conDrm that you don’t want to use the standard version.

The HTML version lacks a lot of features such as chat, spell checker, search Dlters, keyboard shortcuts, and rich formatting. But it is useful in situations where you are in a low-connectivity area or want to just look at emails without any extra bells and whistles. It’s not clear if Google plans to add a mode for low connectivity.