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Thunderbird Pro and Thundermail announced: what you need to know

When Mozilla announced plans to drop the email client Thunderbird about ten years ago, some users feared that this could be the end of the popular open source email client. Things have turned out different though. The project is thriving, thanks to an increasing number of donations that it is receiving.

This allowed the team to expand Thunderbird to mobile platforms, for the first time in history. A suitable candidate was found in K9-Mail for Android, which has since then be renamed to Thunderbird Mobile. A version for iOS is also in the works, but not yet available.

Recently, plans were announced to create new services. The first reactivates Firefox Send, a file transfer service. The second, Thunderbird Appointment, is an entirely new service.

Thunderbird Business Development and Community Manager Ryan Sipes announced two major additions to the portfolio on Friday.

  • Thundermail, an email service.
  • Thunderbird Pro, a list of services (Appointment, Send, and Assist).

Here is what we know about the plans:

Thundermail

The team wants to offer email accounts to users and expand its services this way. Users can sign up for a Thundermail email account and use it in Thunderbird and also on the web.

This is another first for the Thunderbird team, as web-based email services were never offered. Unlike competitors like Gmail or Outlook, Thundermail will be "100% open source". The service is developed and built by the Thunderbird team as well as contributors.

The main goal is to provide a "better service than the other providers out there" and one core feature is the alignment of the email service with the project team's values.

Thunderbird Pro

Thunderbird Pro unifies different services under its hood. The three starting services are the following ones:

  • Appointment: a scheduling service that is designed to simplify meetings. Users may send a link to someone, which the recipient may use to pick a time on the sender's calendar for the meeting.
  • Send: a revived version of Firefox Send. Email is still limiting file attachments, and Send aims to go around this similarly to how Google Drive or OneDrive help Gmail and Outlook customers get around the limitations.
  • Assist: an AI, powered by Flower AI, which introduces AI features. None are mentioned specifically at this point and the team is clear that this will be entirely optional to use. Processing may be done on the user's device, or online using Nvidia's confidential compute feature.

Monetization

Monetization plays a central role, as the services costs money to run and maintain. The Thunderbird team plans to give "consistent community contributors" free access to the new services. Others will have to pay a subscription for access.

Once a sustainable userbase is established, a free tier may be introduced. This may have some limitations, like less storage for Thunderbird Send.

Closing Words

The newly announced mail service and Thunderbird Pro will be completely optional. Thunderbird users do not have to use them. The creation of an email service expands Thunderbird further and helps it compete with Gmail or Outlook more directly.

Especially the ability to manage emails on the web could attract new users who do not want to install a dedicated email client. The services may help as well, but it is too early to tell how successful or niche they will be.

All in all, these plans may help the Thunderbird team establish a second revenue pillar next to donations, which will benefit the entire community, if successful.

Now you: what is your take on this? Would you sign up for a Thunderbird email service or the announced services? Let us know how you feel about it in the comment section below. (via Sören Hentzschel)

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