Gmail is quietly removing a feature that could stop emails from reaching your inbox

When it comes to email providers, Google’s Gmail is one of the most popular around the world. So when it suddenly decides to shake up its services, it can affect a lot of people. And to start off the new year, Google is doing exactly that.

Google has announced that it will end support for POP3 on January 20, 2026. That means if you currently use POP3 to fetch emails from third-party accounts into your Gmail inbox, this setup will stop working.

“Gmail will no longer support checking emails from third-party accounts through POP,” Google explained. “The option to ‘Check mail from other accounts’ will no longer be available in Gmail on your computer.”

Google quietly shared the news in a support page update, where the company also announced “changes” to Gmailify — a feature that lets third-party email accounts take advantage of Gmail tools like spam protection and inbox organization. However, the change Google is making here is quite drastic, as it’s simply shutting Gmailify down altogether, saying it “will no longer provide support” for the feature. Like POP3, Gmailify support will end on January 20, 2026.

Why is Google doing this?

Google says resorting to its mobile app or automatic email forwarding are solutions

In its support page post, Google didn’t explain why it decided to end support for POP. That said, one reason being speculated is security (via TechRadar). The POP3 protocol requires sharing passwords in plain text, which isn’t exactly the most secure approach — especially in 2026. Also, shutting down POP could just be another way Google is trying to convince users to migrate to Gmail for all their email services.

As for Gmailify, Google didn’t offer an official explanation for shutting that down either. But since it was closely tied to POP as a companion feature, it seems Google decided that with POP on the way out, Gmailify is going with it. Gmailify launched in 2016 to bring Gmail’s features to other email accounts users still use, like Yahoo! Mail and Outlook, but 10 years later, it seems Google has decided that if people want Gmail features like spam protection, they’ll need to migrate to the service entirely.

Additionally, while you’ll no longer be able to fetch emails from third-party accounts into Gmail on your PC, Google says you can still use the Gmail mobile app on Android, iOS, and iPadOS to read and send emails from other accounts. Those connections rely on IMAP, which is generally considered more secure than POP since it supports encryption.

If you mainly use Gmail on a PC, the only solution Google recommends is setting up automatic email forwarding to continue receiving messages from third-party accounts in your Gmail inbox once POP support ends. Services like Outlook and Yahoo! Mail support this.

Gmail’s support for POP and Gmailify ends on January 20, 2026, so if you rely on both features, you still have some time to find an alternative before Google fully pulls the plug.

In other Gmail news, Google has also been testing the ability for users to change their Gmail address, though the tech giant hasn’t confirmed whether that feature will eventually roll out to everyone.