Mozilla promised a true Android version of its Thunderbird email client two years ago. The app is now finally out of beta and ready for everyone to try.
Mozilla has finally released the final, finished version of its Thunderbird email client for Android devices. The development of Thunderbird for Android began in 2022 when Mozilla acquired the rights to K-9 Mail, a popular open-source email client for Android. The app was bought to eventually be rebranded as the Thunderbird app, and today, we’re seeing the final culmination of those efforts. It’s powerful, and it’s privacy-focused, letting you add extra features such as OpenPGP email encryption to your existing email provider.
The release comes just a month after the beta version of the app was released, and if you ever got to play with that, you’ll probably feel right at home here. The app will likely also keep getting refined over time—right now, the biggest roadblock was to get the K-9 Mail migration out of the way. Speaking of which, there’s an option to switch from K-9 Mail to Thunderbird for Android. At the moment, both email clients are being kept and published on the Google Play Store under separate listings, and we’re not sure if the K-9 Mail app will eventually be retired, but it’s the most likely scenario.
The fact that the project is now complete doesn’t mean that the road is over. Since this was released just a month after the beta, there’s a chance some bugs went under the radar. K-9 Mail has always been one of the most solid email clients on Android, and by extension, this one should be just as solid, so make sure to give it a spin if you’re in need of a new email client.
You can download Thunderbird on the Google Play Store, and APK downloads are on GitHub. Mozilla says an F-Droid listing is coming soon.
Source: Thunderbird
