Wow. I was looking for Reader and I had to scroll for a long time.
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Very true! Remember Google Wave?
In fairness to them in this particular case, though, it hasn’t been possible to create a new, free, Google Workspace (or Google Apps for Your Domain, as it was when I first set it up) account in a decade. That’s a pretty good run for a free legacy product.
Of course, I’m saying this as someone with an affected account, but who hasn’t really used the account much with Workspace, and doesn’t have much invested. All I really need to do to resolve my own situation is edit some MX records.
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Google has killed a lot of projects. I still haven’t forgiven them for axing Google Reader.
But what company would shut down an email service used by 42% of the world’s internet users? IMO, shutting down mail would be the last thing they would do, just before shutting down search and powering down their servers. 61% of 18 - 29 year olds use Gmail. That is pure gold for an advertising company.
I scrolled around the graveyard looking for its grave. I was a fan. RIP 
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Me too. Google was way ahead of the pack on that one.
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Absolutely, although the whole issue with migrating isn’t with the people who were just getting free service from Google. It’s the people who gave Google money - potentially a lot of money - for other products and services while using the free email.
Not having a good, easy, “revert to Gmail” or “keep your Google account with all of your purchased content but move your actual email elsewhere” option is a really jerky thing to do. But unfortunately that seems to be about par for the course with Google.
I still remember that, and a number of discussions I had with people who were basically insisting that there should a completely free replacement from some company (i.e. refusing to spring for $2/month or something for a sync service). I remember patiently explaining that if Google couldn’t adequately monetize it, it was far less likely that there would be a stable, completely free replacement.
I wouldn’t ever really expect Gmail to shut down, mostly because it’s basically at the center of just about everything else they do. I would expect the free version to get more privacy-intrusive if that’s what’s necessary to make it profitable. 
This is a nice website which chronologically lists everything google has killed
Surprised, google lasted this long with google legacy accounts.
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Very strange, I don’t think I’ve gotten this email from Google yet. Reading some of the information I started thinking “well, July 1 2022, I have 18 months to sort it out” and then I remembered it’s already 2022.
I have a family domain that’s been on free G Suite (and whatever they used to call it) for…at least a decade now? Over the past few years I’ve been careful to not get too invested in that account for anything other than email (so docs, pictures, log in with Google, etc.) but other family members may not have been as careful.
Now we need to decide if we’re going to pay Google $6/month, or look elsewhere. I’m leaning towards Fastmail but I guess it depends on how much people have wrapped up in G Suite.
Here’s a table that Ryan made with a lot of good points for any email service
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My situation is: I have a @gmail.com Google Profile and a @personalname.net Google Profile that was on the Legacy G Suite plan.
Email was forwarded from the @gmail.com to the personal domain.
Play Apps, Photos, Drive, and so on are at the @gmail.com account which is also a paying Google One.
So from my analysis, I will not be paying Google 6$/month only to use a personal email domain. My first order of business is migrating my mail from the personal G Suite account to the GMail account and then use Google Domains to point my personal mail domain to the free GMail account (it seems it’s possible).
Failing that, I will leave all consolidated legacy emails in the gmail.com account and will move my personal domain address to iCloud.
That sounds like it should work. I doubt if Google has different SPF/DKIM records for free and paid email accounts so sending @personaldomain mail from Gmail shouldn’t be a problem.
Let us know how things turn out.
Gah!!!
I use my G Suite Legacy free for redirecting 5 email addresses to other email accounts.
DNS and mail hosting hurt my head.
The custom host is the one I use for my appleID so doing this carefully and not lousing it up is important.
Are you saying your G Suite redirect is the email account you use for your Apple ID? I’d fix that ASAP.
I’m in exactly the same situation. I also have an iCloud email address, which is associated with my Apple ID, but the free G Suite address is the primary email listed for the Apple ID account. Interestingly, when signing in, I can use either address. Presumably, if I remove the G Suite address, my iCloud address will become the primary, which is fine with me as I have the G Suite address forwarding to it anyway.
Fortunately changing you Apple ID email address is much simpler than I thought it was:
Next I need to figure out if Use Custom Email Domain with iCloud Mail - Apple Support (CA) is a good solution for me, or If I want to try something else. I already pay for this service, and the 5 email limit is fine for my use.
I got a cloudflare account, and signed up for the email forwarding beta - that looks like it will be a free service. Not sure how long it will take to get into the beta. Not sure if I should go with a low cost service, instead of a free one.
$6 per month for the cheapest Google plan is a great deal, if you are using all the g-suite features, but I’m just using email forwarding. I saw something saying that there may continue to be a free email forwarding service from google, but their support is confusing. I also saw something that said that they were setting up real human support for the free accounts, to help people figure out what to do. Not sure how long it will take them to get that support out, not sure how Google will be rolling that out. Getting free support as we exit is actually really nice of them. I’ve had a support issue for about 6 years on my G Suite legacy free account and with no free human support available, and no ability to pay for a support incident, It’s just been broken.
I’m only supporting a small number of email users and I do use Google Sites, albeit sparingly, so my plan is to pony up and pay the $6/user/month, at least for now.
@Cbales, your comment that “their support is confusing” might be the understatement of the decade. The paid option comes with “standard support,” what the hell is that?
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It’ll be nice of them if the support can actually solve the bigger problems like customers with Play Store accounts losing access to their paid content. 
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And as the article notes, all they’d have to do to “do the right thing” is allow people to transfer their purchase history to a free, regular Gmail account.
Exactly.
I have the same problem with AWS. I signed up in its early days with my Amazon account. My Amazon account is, of course, where my Kindle, Audible and Prime accounts live, along with my purchase history. What I didn’t realise is that AWS services can never be transferred directly to another Amazon account - so despite having left the company I’m stuck with the services with me as the ‘owner’.
With hindsight, combining personal and professional on one Amazon account wasn’t a great idea, but at that point the company basically was me and it never occurred to me for a moment that a corporate service like AWS would be inextricably linked to a consumer account!