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Ask HN: Anyone Else Use Legacy HTML Gmail as Their Default?

6 points by Dave_TRS ↗ HN
Because Inbox by Gmail shuts down in a few weeks I just tried switching back to the regular gmail.com and have discovered it has gotten so slow while I've been away that it's unusable. I can't even hover over a message and select it without waiting for a lag. I found HN threads musing about using HTML legacy, which seemed crazy but I was desperate so I tried it and it has stuck

Now I use Legacy HTML Gmail as my default, I've bookmarked the search result "category:primary" to replicate the must-have filtering that the main gmail uses to shift junk into tabs that you don't have to click on. I've also started clearing my inbox on my phone even when I'm sitting in front of my computer.

Am I nuts or are others seriously using Legacy HTML Gmail as their desktop default?

10 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 32.1 ms ] thread
tenkabuto
I'm using it! It's fast and works pretty well. I never used Inbox, but I switched to Legacy because I was tired of the regular Gmail's loading screen and interface.

Bookmarking that search is an interesting idea! I didn't know that we can still sort by those categories while using Legacy. I somewhat enjoy seeing all my emails again, un-categorized, but stuff does get lost in the pile. It'd be nice if Google let us save searches.

Dave_TRS
Good suggestion! I just did some experimenting and discovered you can save searches by applying labels through the filtering option in Settings. Now I have a label called "Primary" that mimics the primary tab. In the filter setup I put "category:primary" under the "Has the words" filter and it worked! Now there is a link at the side of my page in the labels list called Primary that lets me get there quickly.
zzzcpan
I use "basic HTML" as default UI for many years. It works really well for me, maybe because I don't have a habit of sorting through emails manually, but have a habit of using filters for everything.
arthev
You're probably nuts.

Anyway, I'm using the basic HTML Gmail as default too.

zerr
I still don't get why anyone would use the web interface when you can use it through POP3 or IMAP and SMTP with the proper desktop e-mail application.
nik736
Yep, I havn't touched the web interface for years. I am wondering if those people are doing the same on their smartphone lol
yesenadam
Yep, I use it, although I could never figure out how to delete more than 1 email at a time! Which is annoying.
nf05papsjfVbc
I use it but chiefly because the regular gmail does not work for me with my browser configuration. For many operations, the mouseclick does not work at all. The basic HTML version at least works.
nikonyrh
Just curious, why wouldn't you use Thunderbird or something like that?