/ JOURNAL
Fastmail and Google, not Fastmail or Google
If you’ve ever thought about moving away from using Gmail and Google Calendar, I want to outline some ways Fastmail helps you do that, either migrating entirely or partially.
One of Fastmail’s finest qualities, I think, is not judging your relationship with Google. There are other qualities.
In my case, I have a Google address that I know I’ll need for a long time to come for shared calendars, Google Docs, YouTube and Google Home services. That account isn’t going anywhere, however I feel about Google as a company.
Fastmail will help you move migrate away from Google wholesale if that’s what you want to do, but it’ll also let you maintain an arms-length ongoing relationship with that Google account.
Fastmail lets you connect your Google calendars and manage them from Fastmail or whatever calendar app you choose. It’ll check your Gmail inbox for you and import your mail, in bulk and on an on-going basis. It’ll let you send from Gmail directly from Fastmail or whatever email client you choose.
Here’s what my own setup looks like:
- My primary email accounts are on Fastmail using my own domain names
- Whether its my iPhone or MacBook, I mostly use Apple’s Mail.app for email, Fantastical for calendars, Cardhop for contacts or Fastmail itself in the browser but I can use whatever app I want to use
- Fastmail’s own apps are good, customisable and its search is particularly strong (i.e. ‘better than Gmail’ strong)
- My Google account is connected to Fastmail. I chose to import my entire email archive from Gmail into Fastmail, and it continues to import any new mail from Gmail as it arrives, and deletes it on Gmail. You can choose to leave a copy on Gmail instead
- I can continue to send email using my Gmail address from Fastmail anytime I want and every email I send goes into my Gmail sent folder as well as Fastmail's
- I’ve also connected to my Google account in Fastmail’s calendars, so that I can see the couple of Google calendars that I need access to (a shared family calendar) alongside my personal calendars in Fastmail
Not everyone has the choice to completely de-Google their lives. What I love about Fastmail is that it lets you define the relationship you have with Google, and it doesn’t judge you for it.