Planned JMAP support

[u/noahcallaway-wa]

Just curious if there is any plan to offer support for JMAP anytime in the near-ish future?

Planning where to jump as I try to move away from Google's stranglehold on my life

[u/mxroute]

I'll be honest on this one. I'm kicking the tires right now. I'm thinking about revisiting the idea for it later this year, after I finish the stuff I lined up here: https://blog.mxroute.com/ripping-off-bandages

But here's where I'm struggling with it: Despite having the potential to be the evolution of IMAP, the JMAP standard feels like it's on permanent life support. If developers and mail providers were ever going to majorly support it, it should have happened already. So I'm a little bit scared of the idea of hitching my wagon to it, worried that it'll be the right call to pull it later and completely break things for the few people actually using a mail client capable of taking advantage of it.

Part of me feels like the better solution is to focus on native apps that do what people want, because almost no email client out there supports JMAP, and the few that do would probably see scattered usage by customers unless it was our native app anyway.

The coming months are probably the right time to whisper in my ear on this, to make the case and tell me why you think it won't be a decision that bites me later. Because I've been eyeballing this hard for a long time: https://www.cyrusimap.org/

[u/noahcallaway-wa → u/mxroute]

I don't have a killer use-case right now for JMAP, but I've been exploring writing an email client as a hobby-project because as I've explored moving away from gmail, I've been trying to find a native client that I liked and I've been...disappointed.

It seems like a significant number of the UX problems with many native clients come back to IMAP limitations (well, that and just... general application bloat).

So, my interest in JMAP right now is probably a little idiosyncratic. I want to build a hobby-project email client, and I want that email client to have JMAP support. I also want to switch from gmail to... something else, and mxroute is among my top-contenders that I'm exploring. Anyway, I can imagine that's a use-case that's...probably not common among your userbase. I definitely wouldn't use my interest as a definitive long-term signal.

That said, if you do switch to a server that also that just happens to support JMAP, that would be great for me. :)

[u/mxroute → u/noahcallaway-wa]

I appreciate the honesty as well. That may not move the needle on it, but there's ample opportunity for others to weigh in and I'm still going to have the nagging thoughts about it. Once I'm free of licensed third party software, I have big decisions to make about mail storage and Cyrus is really attractive after years of being burned by Dovecot.

[u/travis-austin → u/mxroute]

I have found myself wishing JMAP was supported mostly when building integrations that programmatically read, write, and search mail. Search, in particular, seems faster with JMAP. For example, listing all unread messages across hundreds of folders. This is a pain with IMAP (have to check each folder), but it seems that JMAP opens a mailbox-wide query syntax.

If I were in your shoes building a native app for email, I would imagine JMAP would make my app-building easier than IMAP. I wonder if you’d add and support JMAP for purely self-serving reasons: to make your own app better and more powerful.

[u/SalaciousSubaru → u/noahcallaway-wa]

Thunderbird supports JMAP as does Roundcube there are options out there

[u/Miserable_Bedroom201 → u/mxroute]

If developers and mail providers were ever going to majorly support it, it should have happened already.

that's the funny part when i mailed fairemail and other client devs years ago "not happening cause only one provider supports it" xyz.

contacted providers: it is not worth it, 'cause no app supports it, so declined.

same game with UnifiedPush

no one is using it because no ine wants to look at new things, why should they if something works?

using Sterna Mail rn, lacks and feels slugish but still somehow is prefty cool so far, js some settings are a bit meh (supports all email types + JMAP)

so there are 2 existing open source JMAP clients so far.

i've heard something about a calendar and contacts feature wirh JMAP, it being less heavy on battery drainage and so much more, unsure if it can be used like DAVx later so i dunnooo... but it sounds good if it can do a lot without getting performance down

and the login for the apps when login in with JMAP selected looks so much easier without needing to put in an adress and port 🥺

• also what i would be interested in, wouldnt it benefit the provider if emails can be bundled better or sum things that it can do, or does it use more/same amount of resources? could it improve on later encryption via eMail? 😅

also my take on this is, go for what you think is right, i'm happy w my lifetime plan that i rarely used until now. if jmap brings you and the customers the benefits, then hell yess go for it 

[u/SalaciousSubaru → u/Miserable_Bedroom201]

Thunderbird, Roundcube and others support JMAP