On Monday, September 30, as they head to work, millions of Gmail users will encounter new password guidelines to make using the most widely used free email service safer. Google has decided to discontinue support for apps that are considered less secure, third-party access, and devices that are secured with a username and password for accessing Gmail account data. What you should know is as follows.
Farewell To Less Secure App Support For Gmail Users And Google Sync
You haven’t been paying attention if the announcement that Google is drastically overhauling password security across the board surprises you. Google has been heavily focused on security this month, launching post-quantum cryptography to thwart attacks and providing passkeys to Chrome users on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. Since announcing the security update for the Gmail password a year ago, Google has been actively working on it for the past 12 months. Google is asking all Google Workspace customers to log in using a more secure type of access for apps desiring access to Gmail data to replace the outdated username and password sign-in mechanism and lower the risk of compromise for Gmail users.
Which Gmail Users Are Affected By The New Deadline For App Passwords?
All users of the Google Workspace tool suite are subject to the new security guidelines regarding access to Gmail data via less secure apps. To facilitate the transition, the less secure app setting has already been eliminated from the Google Workspace admin panel by blocking the creation of new accounts through this route. IMAP, or Internet Mail Access Protocol, will no longer be able to be toggled from Gmail account settings. However, users of personal Gmail accounts won’t be affected, according to Google, which stated that IMAP access is always enabled over OAuth and won’t affect existing connections. But Google advises taking a few steps to make sure users of Google Workspace Gmail accounts—rather than administrators—do not receive the error notice “username and password is incorrect.”
- You have to switch to Microsoft 365 or Outlook for Windows or Mac if you are using Outlook 2016 or earlier.
- In case you utilize Thunderbird or any other email client, you need to re-add your Google account and set it up for IMAP using OAuth.
- To enable OAuth, if you use Mail on iOS or macOS, you have to use the sign-in with Google option. This will entail taking your account down and adding it back again.