Google has confirmed that from January 2027 it is removing three long-standing features that let Gmail act as a front end for non-Google email accounts. If you have been running a Yahoo, Outlook or custom-domain address through Gmail, this is the change that ends that setup.
What is being removed
- “Send as” for third-party accounts. Today you can add a non-Google address and send mail that appears to come from it, straight out of Gmail on the web or in the mobile apps. From January 2027 that ability is gone for third-party addresses. “Send as” for your own Gmail and Google Workspace addresses is not affected.
- Gmailify. The feature that applied Gmail’s spam filtering, categories and search to a linked third-party mailbox is being retired.
- POP fetch on the web (“Check mail from other accounts”). Gmail will stop pulling mail from third-party accounts over POP into your inbox.
Timeline
- After Q1 2026: Gmailify and web POP fetch stopped accepting new users.
- Q3-Q4 2026: In-product notifications begin; existing configurations keep working through a transition window.
- January 2027: Full removal for existing users of “Send as”, Gmailify and web POP fetch for third-party accounts.
Mail that has already synced into your mailbox stays put. The change affects future sending and fetching, not messages you already have.
Who this affects
Anyone using Gmail’s web or app interface as the “cockpit” for an address hosted somewhere else: small businesses sending from a custom domain through a personal Gmail, people who consolidated an old Yahoo or Outlook account into Gmail, and anyone relying on Gmailify to clean up a secondary inbox.
What stays the same
- Accessing Gmail from third-party clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail) over IMAP or POP is unchanged.
- Adding third-party accounts by IMAP in the Gmail mobile app continues to work.
- “Send as” and DKIM signing for Gmail / Google Workspace addresses is unaffected.
What to do
Google’s own suggestions are to use the provider’s native app, add the account by IMAP in the Gmail mobile app, set up auto-forwarding, or do a one-time import.
From a deliverability standpoint, this is a good moment to stop borrowing another mailbox’s reputation and send from your own properly authenticated domain instead. That means publishing SPF, signing with DKIM at your real sending provider, and getting to a DMARC policy that aligns. If you were using “Send as” to look like your domain while mail actually left Gmail, that alignment gap is exactly what this change forces you to close.
Set the authentication up once and verify it on a real message before January 2027 arrives, rather than discovering broken sending the week the feature disappears.