F-Droid: K-9 Mail App Review

Operating systems
Android 4.4, 4.1.2

Testing devices
Sony Xperia S (LT26i)
LG Nexus 5

F-Droid app review: K-9 Mail, a full-featured email client
K-9 Mail is an open source email client for Android, published under the Apache License version 2.0. It’s written in Java, and is available from F-Droid and Google Play among others. K-9 Mail supports the POP3 and IMAP protocols, including Push IMAP support. It also supports multiple accounts.

While I can verify that it does indeed support POP3 and IMAP, the Push IMAP for Microsoft’s Outlook.com email service remains nonfunctional for me. There is a bug report filed for it, and that comments there would suggest that other email services may also suffer from the same issue. That aside, the rest of the functionality is solid and working.

K-9 Mail features extensive customization options both to the appearance and functionality of the client, which I personally consider a major bonus over most other mobile email clients. The option to disable unnecessary features and tone down the UI to a more minimalistic approach is something I haven’t been able to find elsewhere.

I use the client with my Outlook.com email account (IMAP), and I can honestly say that it’s very easy and smooth to read your emails using K-9 Mail as opposed to the default Android email client, or even Google’s own Gmail client.

From my personal experience in the past year and a half, I can say that K-9 Mail is one of the best mobile email clients I’ve ever used. The fact that it’s open source and doesn’t have any ads certainly contributes to a trouble-free user experience. If you’re looking for a full-featured mobile email client for Android with extensive customization options, IMAP and POP3 support, then I would recommend checking out K-9 Mail.

References
K-9 Mail, Google Code (https://code.google.com/p/k9mail/)
K-9 Mail, Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fsck.k9)
K-9 Mail, F-Droid (https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=k-9%20mail&fdid=com.fsck.k9)
Karvinen, Tero: Lessons 2013-11-21, Mobiilituotekehitys [Mobile Application Development] (http://terokarvinen.com/2013/aikataulu-%E2%80%93-mobiilituotekehitys-bus4tn008-3-syksylla-2013)

About
This document can be copied and edited according to the GNU General Public License (version 3 or newer). http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
Based on a course by Tero Karvinen, http://www.iki.fi/karvinen