Author Topic: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family  (Read 91483 times)

Timerider

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #60 on: December 23, 2016, 09:20:08 am »
I understand the reasons behind this move and hope you as a developer will benefit from this.

I tried outthe officesuite and now my only worry is that the "lean and mean" AM will become bloatware like their office App which also bugs the use with advertising :-(

Your support until now is very much appreciated - well done for creating such a great App!

NovaViper

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #61 on: December 24, 2016, 09:00:59 pm »
Whoa whoa whoa.. I'm a bit new to AquaMail and I saw a review on GooglePlay saying that the app is tracking all kinds of stuff since it was acquired by MobiSystems.. Just exactly WHAT stuff are being tracked? I want to know because on Reddit, I saw a post saying that TrueApp and such sister apps track your browsing and download log information.. which I don't particularly care for at all (Mainly because I think, 'Why should an emailing service track my browsing information and download logs on my device?').

This even discouraged me from buying pro, as I don't really care about tracking too much (since I know that Google, Microsoft and several other big companies I use already got my info and I DON'T put my real information for such reasons! :/), but there's a certain line I have when it comes to it.
« Last Edit: December 24, 2016, 09:05:10 pm by NovaViper »

pyler

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #62 on: December 24, 2016, 11:22:22 pm »
 aquamail's name is getting destroyed now :(
Do you want to use the latest AquaMail version?
Try AquaMail Updater!

jmccabe

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #63 on: December 24, 2016, 11:45:38 pm »
Just exactly WHAT stuff are being tracked? I want to know because on Reddit, I saw a post saying that TrueApp and such sister apps track your browsing and download log information..

I don't really know what the tracking stuff that's gone into AquaMail is but, as far as I can tell from the earlier comments, it's more about usage rather than personal details etc.

TypeApp and Blue Mail, on the other hand, work in a different way to how Aqua Mail currently works. Where Aqua Mail connects directly to your mail service's servers and pulls the mail in directly from there so, if you have 4 or 5 account say, Aqua Mail will connect to each one in turn and so on. TypeApp and Blue Mail, as I understand it, communicate only with the TypeApp/Blue Mail servers and pass the information they need to pull your email from the 'real' servers. Your email therefore passes through, and may be stored by TypeApp/Blue Mail's service which can pull out all sorts of information and use it for their own ends, including selling whatever they want to 3rd parties.

This is why TypeApp/Blue Mail can afford to provide what appears to be a very good email app whereas Kostya's been trying to work within a business model where customers pay once and expect support, updates, and the right to use the app on whatever Android devices they feel like without having to pay any extra. This is a dreadful business model from a developer's point of view, and is actually pretty crap for customers as well because almost all apps that are in that position have, or are going to, come to the point that Kostya's reached where they either sell out to a company with a more sustainable business model, or just abandon the app altogether.

This is something I briefly discussed with Kostya a little while ago when I decided that Aqua Mail was valuable enough to me that I wanted to make an additional contribution over and above the initial license fee. In the end, I just bought a 2nd license but, obviously,  that was a small contribution and not enough to prevent Kostya from having to look at alternative options.

Unfortunately, in this case, Kostya's chosen to go with MobiSystems who're actually pretty nasty to customers; offering seriously crippled 'free' versions of their apps and nagging people to pay for stuff they often don't need, and forcing app icons onto people's home screens, and accepting payment for 'premium' versions of their apps that STILL don't provide all the functionality in the app without extra payment!

This causes me a real dilemma; while Kostya's still involved with Aqua Mail I feel like it's risking his livelihood to suggest you use something else but, perhaps (hopefully), the deal's good enough for him not to care too much. Personally though, I'm seriously looking at returning to K-9 Mail. There was probably a good reason I moved away from K-9 when I did a few years ago; I think it might have been to do with issues related to dealing with POP3 mail (there was some funny with the way the database was handled in relation to marking messages as read or something), but I don't use POP3 any more so I don't need to worry about that any more. K-9 uses one of the other business models; it's free because it's open-source so, first of all, you can be absolutely sure (if you have the knowledge) of what is and isn't being sent to 3rd parties and, as a software developer myself it means that, if there's something I don't like about the app, I can put some effort into making it better.

Hope this helps
John
« Last Edit: December 24, 2016, 11:47:36 pm by jmccabe »

iceman.jkh

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #64 on: December 25, 2016, 01:35:14 am »
aquamail's name is getting destroyed now :(
Unfortunately it really is!

AM is an awesome app, but unless something happens very soon (change of this policy, comment from Kostya, etc.) the app will be discarded (and derided) by many (especially the savvy ones who got AM due to it being so privacy conscious).

Reddit (amongst other places) is destroying the good name that Kostya built for AM ... and frankly (unfortunately) there's nothing to argue in response. They're right and IMHO the privacy policy change is not appropriate given what AM stood for.

Sent from my SM-G935F


NovaViper

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #65 on: December 25, 2016, 01:58:44 am »
Just exactly WHAT stuff are being tracked? I want to know because on Reddit, I saw a post saying that TrueApp and such sister apps track your browsing and download log information..

I don't really know what the tracking stuff that's gone into AquaMail is but, as far as I can tell from the earlier comments, it's more about usage rather than personal details etc.

TypeApp and Blue Mail, on the other hand, work in a different way to how Aqua Mail currently works. Where Aqua Mail connects directly to your mail service's servers and pulls the mail in directly from there so, if you have 4 or 5 account say, Aqua Mail will connect to each one in turn and so on. TypeApp and Blue Mail, as I understand it, communicate only with the TypeApp/Blue Mail servers and pass the information they need to pull your email from the 'real' servers. Your email therefore passes through, and may be stored by TypeApp/Blue Mail's service which can pull out all sorts of information and use it for their own ends, including selling whatever they want to 3rd parties.

This is why TypeApp/Blue Mail can afford to provide what appears to be a very good email app whereas Kostya's been trying to work within a business model where customers pay once and expect support, updates, and the right to use the app on whatever Android devices they feel like without having to pay any extra. This is a dreadful business model from a developer's point of view, and is actually pretty crap for customers as well because almost all apps that are in that position have, or are going to, come to the point that Kostya's reached where they either sell out to a company with a more sustainable business model, or just abandon the app altogether.

This is something I briefly discussed with Kostya a little while ago when I decided that Aqua Mail was valuable enough to me that I wanted to make an additional contribution over and above the initial license fee. In the end, I just bought a 2nd license but, obviously,  that was a small contribution and not enough to prevent Kostya from having to look at alternative options.

Unfortunately, in this case, Kostya's chosen to go with MobiSystems who're actually pretty nasty to customers; offering seriously crippled 'free' versions of their apps and nagging people to pay for stuff they often don't need, and forcing app icons onto people's home screens, and accepting payment for 'premium' versions of their apps that STILL don't provide all the functionality in the app without extra payment!

This causes me a real dilemma; while Kostya's still involved with Aqua Mail I feel like it's risking his livelihood to suggest you use something else but, perhaps (hopefully), the deal's good enough for him not to care too much. Personally though, I'm seriously looking at returning to K-9 Mail. There was probably a good reason I moved away from K-9 when I did a few years ago; I think it might have been to do with issues related to dealing with POP3 mail (there was some funny with the way the database was handled in relation to marking messages as read or something), but I don't use POP3 any more so I don't need to worry about that any more. K-9 uses one of the other business models; it's free because it's open-source so, first of all, you can be absolutely sure (if you have the knowledge) of what is and isn't being sent to 3rd parties and, as a software developer myself it means that, if there's something I don't like about the app, I can put some effort into making it better.

Hope this helps
John

Thanks for clearing things up! I got really nervous since I get really suspicious when apps and programs alike ask for permissions that I find for certain ones to be quite unnecessary. But since MobiSystems is pretty bossy, should I just not risk it and move to K-9? I haven't tried K-9 but I noticed that it hasn't been updated in awhile (which normally indicates to that the app might be abandoned)

jmccabe

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #66 on: December 25, 2016, 02:08:52 am »
Thanks for clearing things up! I got really nervous since I get really suspicious when apps and programs alike ask for permissions that I find for certain ones to be quite unnecessary. But since MobiSystems is pretty bossy, should I just not risk it and move to K-9? I haven't tried K-9 but I noticed that it hasn't been updated in awhile (which normally indicates to that the app might be abandoned)

No problem. To be honest, I noticed that there hasn't been a public release for 7 months or something, but there have been a lot of changes committed in that time on Github, so I'm not sure why they haven't bothered doing a release for a while. I'm starting to pay more attention to it again so will try to find out. Obviously, as it's open-source and run by volunteers, there's no timescales defined for releases.

John

NovaViper

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #67 on: December 25, 2016, 02:15:07 am »
Thanks for clearing things up! I got really nervous since I get really suspicious when apps and programs alike ask for permissions that I find for certain ones to be quite unnecessary. But since MobiSystems is pretty bossy, should I just not risk it and move to K-9? I haven't tried K-9 but I noticed that it hasn't been updated in awhile (which normally indicates to that the app might be abandoned)

No problem. To be honest, I noticed that there hasn't been a public release for 7 months or something, but there have been a lot of changes committed in that time on Github, so I'm not sure why they haven't bothered doing a release for a while. I'm starting to pay more attention to it again so will try to find out. Obviously, as it's open-source and run by volunteers, there's no timescales defined for releases.

John

Yeah, with open-sources they do normally take longer to release (I know this because I am actually creating an app.. and its going a bit rough so far but it could be worst). Also, what's the difference between the two apps? Not sure whether if I want to switch again (third time switching from Gmail to Inbox, then back to GMail, then finally to AquaMail). I mainly switched the very first time because GMail didn't offer mark all as read anymore, then Inbox came, tried that and it too didn't offer it
« Last Edit: December 25, 2016, 02:18:03 am by NovaViper »

jmccabe

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #68 on: December 25, 2016, 02:43:59 am »
At the time, one of the main reasons I chose Aquamail was because it was actually very similar to K-9, both in general layout and philosophy. They've diverged a little, I think, and Kostya has updated the look of Aquamail where K9 now looks more dated. There is a discussion on UI rework on the K9 in one of the forums, so hopefully that's something that will be improved shortly. Other than that, I'm not sure really, but I have a feeling K9 might not directly support Exchange. I've installed it again and got it setup alongside Aquamail to compare the two.

NovaViper

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #69 on: December 25, 2016, 02:52:48 am »
At the time, one of the main reasons I chose Aquamail was because it was actually very similar to K-9, both in general layout and philosophy. They've diverged a little, I think, and Kostya has updated the look of Aquamail where K9 now looks more dated. There is a discussion on UI rework on the K9 in one of the forums, so hopefully that's something that will be improved shortly. Other than that, I'm not sure really, but I have a feeling K9 might not directly support Exchange. I've installed it again and got it setup alongside Aquamail to compare the two.

Ah, I went to AquaMail because it looked more towards the Material style, but with all of the negative things I'm hearing about MobiSystems and how they're pushing AquaMail on people's phones, it's making me worry and question rather I should buy pro on AquaMail or just deal with the datedness of K-9. Unfortunate right?.. and I did happen to grow attached to AquaMail a little bit, but I have no tolerance to companies that force people into paying.

I'm conflicted between buying pro for AquaMail (since its on sale for $2.45) and see what happens to the app or just deal with K-9.
Now.. the main question is: Should I even waste my money and purchase pro membership with AquaMail or just go to K-9 and adapt to it?
« Last Edit: December 25, 2016, 02:56:52 am by NovaViper »

patrickdrd

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #70 on: December 25, 2016, 02:54:55 am »
thanks for this posts, I think I'm gonna try it too and ditch (at last) typemail as my second /backup email app

jmccabe

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #71 on: December 25, 2016, 03:07:35 am »
Now.. the main question is: Should I even waste my money and purchase pro membership with AquaMail or just go to K-9 and adapt to it?

I just don't know. Kostya is remaining involved with Aquamail so I would hope he could temper MobiSystems' idiocy, at least in the short term, but I don't know how things will pan out. I don't like MobiSystems; I've paid for their apps in the past then, even with the 'premium' version (of File Commander) got hit with the 'that feature requires an extra per-use payment" when I tried something. I'm also not impressed with some of the choices they've made, like introducing a "recycle bin" that can't be switched off and, obviously their advertising and bloat beggars belief. That's not a business model I'm happy to support.

NovaViper

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #72 on: December 25, 2016, 03:14:18 am »
I just don't know. Kostya is remaining involved with Aquamail so I would hope he could temper MobiSystems' idiocy, at least in the short term, but I don't know how things will pan out. I don't like MobiSystems; I've paid for their apps in the past then, even with the 'premium' version (of File Commander) got hit with the 'that feature requires an extra per-use payment" when I tried something. I'm also not impressed with some of the choices they've made, like introducing a "recycle bin" that can't be switched off and, obviously their advertising and bloat beggars belief. That's not a business model I'm happy to support.

Hm.. Well, might as well go and see what happens :/ Hopefully things don't end up going to hell.

patrickdrd

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #73 on: December 25, 2016, 03:52:06 am »
At the time, one of the main reasons I chose Aquamail was because it was actually very similar to K-9, both in general layout and philosophy. They've diverged a little, I think, and Kostya has updated the look of Aquamail where K9 now looks more dated. There is a discussion on UI rework on the K9 in one of the forums, so hopefully that's something that will be improved shortly. Other than that, I'm not sure really, but I have a feeling K9 might not directly support Exchange. I've installed it again and got it setup alongside Aquamail to compare the two.
it doesn't fit me, because I want exchange mail too

https://k9mail.github.io/documentation/accounts/incoming_webdav.html

iceman.jkh

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Re: Aqua Mail is now part of the MobiSystems family
« Reply #74 on: December 25, 2016, 09:39:24 am »


Now.. the main question is: Should I even waste my money and purchase pro membership with AquaMail or just go to K-9 and adapt to it?

I just don't know. Kostya is remaining involved with Aquamail so I would hope he could temper MobiSystems' idiocy, at least in the short term, but I don't know how things will pan out. I don't like MobiSystems; I've paid for their apps in the past then, even with the 'premium' version (of File Commander) got hit with the 'that feature requires an extra per-use payment" when I tried something. I'm also not impressed with some of the choices they've made, like introducing a "recycle bin" that can't be switched off and, obviously their advertising and bloat beggars belief. That's not a business model I'm happy to support.

Feels a bit too late.

Kostya is currently still onboard... and as time goes on, I expect he'll have less control, not more. And yet, AM already has Mobisystems rubbish embedded (i.e. the privacy policy change).

I wish I was wrong, but I don't see this getting better (for AM fans). 😕

Sent from my SM-G935F