Google is pulling the plug on one of Gmail's handy features.

The "Send as" tool, which lets you fire off emails from third-party accounts like Yahoo or Outlook directly through Gmail, will stop working in January 2027. This essentially turned Gmail into a one-stop shop for all your email addresses. If you still had an old Hotmail account in use, you could send messages from it without ever leaving Gmail.

As for why Google is doing this, the company says maintaining these legacy features demands "disproportionate maintenance resources." Both the web version and mobile app are affected.

But it's not just "Send as" getting the chop. Google is also axing Gmailify, a handy tool that brings Gmail's spam filtering and inbox organisation to your non-Gmail accounts, along with Post Office Protocol (POP) support on the web, which pulls emails from other services into your Gmail inbox. All three features are heading for the bin at the same time.

Gmailify worked a bit differently. It brought Gmail's spam filters, labels, and inbox organisation tools to those third-party accounts. Meanwhile, POP on the web fetched emails from other services and dropped them straight into your Gmail inbox.

However, if you're paying for Google Workspace, none of this applies to you. Gmail-to-Gmail aliases will also keep working just fine. It's only personal account holders who are losing out.

Google has already started notifying affected users and has blocked anyone new from setting up these features. Existing users can carry on until the January 2027 deadline hits.

There is a small silver lining. Any emails you've already imported into Gmail aren't going anywhere. You'll also still be able to receive and view messages from third-party accounts through the Gmail app on Android and iOS — you just won't be able to send or sync from them.

One user wrote on Reddit: "This is crippling for my workflow. I have multiple custom domain email addresses that all forward to my Gmail account, and I rely on 'Send as' to reply as those email addresses."

Another user wrote: "This is massive for me. I use Gmail as my primary mail client, so that my personal and business mail is in one place.

"If I can’t use Gmail as a client for my own domains anymore, I have to find an entirely new way.

"It’s not the end of the world, things change. But it will mean the end of using Gmail for me, and that’s going to be so strange after over 20 years of using it."

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For those hunting for alternatives, desktop email clients like Thunderbird offer multi-account setups using standard IMAP and POP protocols — meaning you can still manage everything in one place, Gmail included.

Google itself has cautioned against using other services offering similar functionality, warning, "they often require access to your email credentials or OAuth tokens. This can expose your account to security and privacy risks."

Email credentials give an app your "password," while an OAuth token gives it a "key" with specific permissions. OAuth is generally much safer, but you're still trusting the app to protect that key and use the access you've granted responsibly.