These 9 Thunderbird features made me ditch Gmail for good

At the beginning of this year, I decided to ditch Gmail for the first time in about 15 years. It was not my plan to let down Google’s email app, as I have always enjoyed features such as Proofread, Confidential Mode, and Undo Send ( this one saved me once when I almost sent an email meant for my wife to my boss). But that does not mean it’s the best option for everyone.

Over time, the Gmail app stopped feeling like a tool for sending and receiving emails and became like a marketer trying to sell me Google’s services. From the push for smart features that I don’t need to ads and the cluttered, AI-supported interface, checking my emails became a chore.

So, despite my skepticism for the alternatives, I finally reached my breaking point in February this year and decided to move to Thunderbird on Windows and Android. I have used it for about seven months now, and Gmail no longer feels the obvious winner. My only regret is not jumping ship sooner. To zero in on why I like it, here are the main reasons why I may never go back to Gmail.

Have you ever been on a flight, vigorously searching for a work email you received two weeks ago, only to find out you cannot access it because there’s no internet connection? You aren’t alone. That’s the situation I found myself in back in December 2025 while traveling to Canada. Professionals across various sectors using Gmail as a standalone email app often face the same infuriating reality. The platform prioritizes cloud connectivity over offline functionality, leaving users stranded when there’s no internet access.

Thunderbird, on the other hand, is an email client with local storage, meaning I can store emails on my device, read them offline, and keep my workflow flexible. Whether it is working during long flights, traveling to regions with spotty coverage, or dealing with network outages, I do not have to rely on a constant browser session. While Gmail can also let you access your emails without an internet connection, its features are significantly limited.

To enable this setting in Thunderbird on your PC, click Account settings at the top-right corner of your screen. From here, select Synchronization and storage, then check the Keep messages for this account on this computer setting. Once complete, Thunderbird will download all the messages for the selected folders so you can access them offline seamlessly.

You can also download and save all your messages by changing the message retention settings.  Navigate to Settings, click Account settings, and select Synchronization and storage. Under Message Synchronizing, choose Advanced and check all the folders you want to access offline. From the same tab under Disk space, select Synchronize all messages locally regardless of age. Disable Don’t download messages larger than and hit OK.

After that, you will get true offline access. You can access your messages or email history from last month or last year without internet connectivity. Just note that large email attachments may take up a lot of space on your device.

 Another notable feature of Thunderbird is support for third-party add-ons that you can install to make it more productive on your PC. Whether it’s add-ons for sending messages with end-to-end encryption, uploading large email attachments to the cloud, or creating various templates, you will find them in Thunderbird. To access the add-ons on your PC, navigate to Settings, then scroll down to Add-ons and themes. From here, you can browse or search for the add-on you are looking for and then tap Add to Thunderbird.

The Android Thunderbird app also gives you absolute control over how the inbox appears. You can adjust the themes, color codes for certain emails, or even fonts.  Tap Settings, then General settings, and tap Display. From here, you can adjust the display density: pick Relaxed (to see more emails quickly) or Compact (to reduce the number of emails you can see at a glance). You can also increase the number of message preview lines to six. This allows you to quickly check an email and decide whether it is worth reading. The split view feature, also found under the Display settings, feels like a desktop email client on a foldable or a larger phone.

 Thunderbird is open source, making it more appealing to privacy-conscious users like me who handle sensitive emails. The code is available for inspection, and anyone can analyze how it works, suggest improvements, or, more importantly, study what it does with your data. There are no hidden data mining scripts or trackers in the background.

With Thunderbird, I can sit pretty knowing I am not trading my data or attention for a free application. In addition, Thunderbird also has an OpenPGP feature that allows me to send or receive encrypted emails without going through third-party plugins. To access the feature in the Android app, navigate to Settings, tap General Settings, then tap the email or email accounts you want to encrypt. Next, scroll down to End-to-end encryption and toggle on Enable OpenPGP support.

From now on, only the person you send your emails to can read your emails.

When Google introduced its first generative AI feature in Gmail, “Help me write,” in 2023, the app began to feel like a personal assistant rather than a basic email client. Gradually, the tech giant went on to add more AI features to the app, such as email nudges and suggested replies, that sometimes predict what is not even on my mind.

While you can also add AI features to Thunderbird via add-ons like Thunder AI, embracing Thunderbird (the basic version) has shown me a better way to manage emails. There are no forced AI tools trying to suggest my next reply. I also prefer to read and reply to my messages rather than rely on a machine to comprehend them and suggest canned replies.

Thunderbird’s standard version is absolutely free; there are no limitations or paid licenses. Unlike Gmail, where sponsored banners, subtle nudges, and paid subscriptions are the order of the day, Thunderbird only shows you what is important: your emails, free of charge. For a small business owner like me with a limited budget, this means I can seamlessly download, install, and configure the email client without breaking the bank.

While Gmail is technically free, the convenience comes at a cost. Google relies heavily on user data. Google may not be scanning emails to tailor ads, but it collects a heap of data to craft a profile for ad targeting across the Google services you have signed up for.

The nature of my work requires me to use different operating systems and devices. I use Logic Pro on my MacBook Pro to help a friend edit songs, an HP ZBook for research, and my Samsung Galaxy A70 for testing and debugging Android apps. Thunderbird makes it seamless for me to access my messages on any device, as it is compatible with all these platforms.

If you are using a laptop, whether Windows or macOS, and want to switch to Android, you can instantly sync the setup with your Android phone using a QR code and use it to access your messages. In your desktop email client, click Settings and select Export for mobile. A QR code should appear.  Next, launch the app on your phone, navigate to Settings, tap Import settings, and select Scan QR code. Scan the code on your PC and tap Import.

After you complete the process, you should be able to access your email on your phone just as you do on your laptop or PC.

It is not once nor twice that I have had problems with how the Gmail app sometimes handles notifications on Android. In some cases, they may pop up hours or days later, or worse, not arrive at all. You would be sitting somewhere waiting for feedback from a client, and think they have not responded, yet they did so a day or two ago.

I tried fixing the issue without much success. The only option I had was to keep on refreshing my email whenever I was expecting an important email. However, after switching to Thunderbird, that is no longer the case. Notifications arrive promptly each time.  The feature comes enabled by default, but you can still enable it yourself if it is not. Open the Thunderbird app, tap Settings, and then under Accounts, tap the emails you want to enable notifications for. Next, tap Notifications and check New mail notifications.

Upon doing this, you will get notifications almost immediately when you receive an email.

I have several email addresses from various providers, and keeping tabs on them can be overwhelming.  Thunderbird significantly reduces this problem by allowing me to add as many emails as possible. Whether it is Yahoo, Gmail, or Outlook, I can use them all from a single app or view. While Gmail also has this feature, it is not designed to handle a large number of addresses. A few will work; many won’t. To access the feature, in your Thunderbird app, tap the Main menu in the top-left corner, then select Add account. Add the email address and tap Next. Depending on your security settings, you may be required to confirm the addition from the email you are adding.

However, note that by default, messages from different email accounts are stored in separate folders. You can adjust the settings to a unified view that shows all emails from all your accounts. Tap the Main menu (three straight lines) in the top-left corner of your Thunderbird app, then select Unified Account.

From here, you should be able to see all your emails regardless of which email account they are in. The best part? Each email is coded by email account, making it easy to determine which email comes from which account.

Thunderbird comes with a reliable junk mail filtering feature that lets users configure which messages go to the spam folder. When you mark a message as junk, it teaches the email client to funnel such emails to the spam folder.  To do this in the Android app, long-press the email in question, tap the three dots at the top-right-hand corner, and select Spam. The email will be moved to the spam folder.

You can also do the same for other emails. For example, you can move promotional or newsletter emails to a specific folder for seamless organization. In the Thunderbird app, select the messages you want to move by long-pressing one of them to highlight it. Then tap any other messages you want to move, and select the three dots in the top-right corner. From the drop-down menu, select Move and then choose the folder you want to move the messages to.

The selected messages will instantly move to the folder you’ve selected, making them easier to find.

If you use Gmail, you are most likely also using Google Drive or Calendar. While that can be an advantage for some, as it makes tasks like collaboration and email scheduling seamless, for some like me, it is unnecessary. It is not that I do not like the features, but they make me feel as if all my conversations are connected to Google’s ecosystem, whether I want them to be or not.

I am fine with Thunderbird as a basic email client. It does not try to be a shopping tracker or a productivity dashboard in my email. It also gives me a clear boundary between my messages and other tasks  I do online, making it less intrusive. The user interface is also minimal and simple, making it ideal for users who want to avoid distractions or vendor lock-in.

These are some of Thunderbird’s distinctive features that serve me well. My email interface is less cluttered and feels like a tool again! As Gmail continues to adopt several AI-driven features that I consider unnecessary or noisy, Thunderbird is proof enough that an email app need not be complicated or smart to be potent. It only needs to offer robust customization capabilities, be simple, and be private.

If you are tired of the clutter and ready to break free from Google, the switch to Thunderbird is not as hard as it seems.