Thunderbird 8.0 released as Android app

[German]The Mozilla developers released the Thunderbird email client as an Android app at the end of October 2024. The client allows you to manage emails and can adopt the settings of the desktop version of Thunderbird. I have written down a few impressions.

Thunderbird 8.0 as an Android app

The Mozilla project released Thunderbird 8.0 as an app for Android at the end of October 2024.

Mozilla Thunderbird is now available to download from the Google Play Store as the Android app "Thunderbird: Free your Inbox". The app is advertised as a 100% open source e-Mail app with a focus on data protection. Thunderbird for Android version 8.0 is based on the aforementioned K-9 Mail app.

The Thunderbird for Android now looks like a Thunderbird on the desktop. The app has received a new "folder drawer" design and enables the migration of settings from K-9 Mail and Thunderbird Desktop with import of the settings within the app. Folder management has been simplified by revising the display and push classes.

Importing the Thunderbird settings

The developers had promised that the settings of the desktop version of Thunderbird could be used (see also these instructions from the developers). Since I use this version, I tried this migration directly. I had to update the desktop version of Thunderbird to version 128.4.0esr to get the Export for mobile command in the Tools menu.

After selecting this command, a page appears in Thunderbird where you can select the e-mail accounts to be exported using checkboxes. You can also specify whether you want to include the passwords. The desktop version of Thunderbird generates two QR codes via the Export button displayed at the bottom of the page (see following image).

In the Thunderbird Android app, you can then open a menu via the burger menu in the top left-hand corner and then select the gear icon for the settings at the bottom left-hand edge of the screen. In the settings menu, you will find the Import settings command, which opens a page where you can select the file or Scan QR button.

Scan QR code opens the camera and the user can scan the two displayed QR codes of the Thunderbird desktop app. Switching from the 1st to the 2nd QR code is done in the desktop app via the Next button visible at the top. The migration worked for me for all accounts without any problems.

The export seems to fail, if the dark mode is set in Thunderbird desktop version – as German readers told me.

And there are discussions, that the migration via QR code may be a security issue for enterprise environments, where administrators may wish to prevent a migration to private mobile devices.

First impressions – what's good and bad

I installed the Thunderbird Android app yesterday. What's definitely good is that the app is open source and doesn't contain any trackers – so a bit more privacy. I have therefore deactivated the GMail app from Google.

In the app settings, you can also select a split view with the message list on the left and the content of the selected mail on the right in landscape format (an unsplit view is used by default). What also works better than in the GMail app is the search in POP3 accounts – at least if the mails are still displayed in the view.

Where I personally struggle a little is with some of the design decisions made by the Mozilla developers. In GMail, I can delete messages from the message list by swiping the entries to the right – and retrieve them from the trash can via "Undo" if necessary. In the Thunderbird Android app, swiping an entry to the right highlights it – and I have to tap the delete icon at the top of the app to delete highlighted messages.

In the GMail app, there is an icon in the top corner which, when selected, opens a pop-up for selecting the email account to be used. In the Thunderbird Android app, click on the burger menu in the top left-hand corner to display the list of configured email accounts as icons. Unfortunately, each account is displayed with the first two letters of the domain name of the mail account. This makes it difficult to distinguish between several Outlook accounts. I have currently set a color coding for differentiation.

The Thunderbird app doesn't support Exchange active sync. Under the hood, Thunderbird is K9 Mail.

I'm citing a German comment from Bolko here, which is about telemetry.

Mike Kuketz still criticized telemetry in the 8.0 Beta 1. The 8.0 beta 2 changelog states: – Temporarily removed telemetry

In the 8.0 final, "telemetry" appears as a string in 60 of 8633 files in the source.

Telemetry is created variably in the TelemetryManager. I don't yet know how to switch this on or off.

II would tap on the settings icon in the burger menu. Then, under Error analysis, activate the two options Activate error log and Deselect log confidential information (both were deactivated here).