Current headline on HN is incorrect - it's not custom domains, it's third-party email addresses, such as @yahoo.com or @outlook.com. Domains and other gmail addresses you own can still be used....

This support article gives more details here, even though it's still clear as mud that they are dropping support for custom domains _unless_ that domain is hosted via Google Workspaces:

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/17101213

Even more confusing, you _will_ be able to still send to a custom domain via the Gmail mobile app? This appears to be an anti-spam move I guess? Though personally, this is a big breakage for me...

Where does it say that domains you own can be used? I'm looking around and nothing clearly states it afaict.

> This change does not affect Google Workspace aliases or other Gmail addresses you own.

to me, implies that you need to set up Google Workspace for that domain before it'll work.

The headline is not wrong, its intentionally worded that way to mellow down the message. Its for the people who use their own custom domains to send emails via google without paying for the workspace by verifying the domain ownership (its a extra cost that google bears now for free). The @yahoo.com or @outlook.com are just to give a face to what other custom domains look like.

The whole point is if you have custom domains then pay for the google workspace if you still want to use it. Couldnt find it right away, from what I recollect it used to be $6 or $8 per email address

I don't think folks read the source link. Most responses are a plug for Fastmail.

Yeah, basically this is terminating the trick some people used where they host a domain elsewhere but want to use an free personal GMail address as the "mail client" for it. Google sells their own domain email product, they'd prefer you use that vs. paying someone else.

And let's be honest here: GMail remains the preferred email client for almost everyone, for a lot of boring but very good reasons (mostly down to reliability and spam filtering).

Basically: people who don't like Google and don't use Google won't be affected and won't care. People who pay for Workspace hosting won't be affected, as those domains still work via Send-As. The people complaining here are in category 1, there are a handful of people (I'm one) in category 2 trying to help explain, and unsurprisingly there are very, very few people here in the actually impacted category of "mail client for external domain" users.