[ocdtrekkie]

When I transitioned from Gmail to FastMail, I had to get used to using folders again instead of labels. While it was painful, I am glad I am no longer using labels, and I have no intention to start using them again. I vastly prefer being able to rely on the basic email client functionality in any given mail app, and using goofy nonstandard parts like snooze and labels makes that difficult.

I appreciate that with JMAP, FastMail has essentially become the first entity to do labels correctly, with a freaking standard behind it, but client support isn't going to be there for many years so I will avoid it. The big upside for me is it'll take away one reason people say they can't leave Gmail.

[jeltz]

Is there any reason for why IMAP keywords cannot be used for labels by e.g. having some prefix for the keyword which indicates that it should be interpreted as a label? Client support is of course needed but to me it seems like the IMAP protocol already supports labels. Maybe IMAP lacks the ability to enumerate all labels?

[ocdtrekkie]

Gmail already has a bad hack for this: It reports labels as folders and that duplicate copies of emails are in them.

So the issue is that any other solution would work improperly for Gmail. Client support is a huge part of the problem: If it's outside the standard, clients aren't going to handle it the same way.

JMAP, of course, fixes this.

[jeltz]

IMAP keywords are in the standard.

[ocdtrekkie]

Yes, but how to use them to emulate labels support is not.