[squarefoot]

I don't use any other service by Google except Gmail and Maps (anonymously), and all my message base is already backed up online at Fastmail plus locally. The day they don't accept anymore POP mail clients or do anything nasty, is the day I send all my contacts my new mail address and forget about Google. They pushed and killed a lot of services, and the way they deal with user support makes them highly unreliable for pretty much everything except tracking users and advertising.

Google unprofessionalism aside, the most reliable cloud storage in the world can't beat a solid local backup. Never ever keep your files in single copy, no matter who is the cloud storage provider; always keep a local backup, or to be more precise, the cloud storage should be one of the two backups, not the original.

[asddubs]

I'm a complete hypocrite in saying this because I've also been too lazy to set up an alternate email so far, but doesn't it make more sense to do it before that day?

[squarefoot]

Yes, being prepared is a lot better since apparently Google has a thing for terminating accounts and services without notice. It shouldn't happen with Gmail because so many people depend on it for other services, also for confirmation of email change with the bank for example, which would be impossible if the account has already been terminated, but I'd be on the safe side anyway. That's the reason I set up my Fastmail account so that it mirrors my Gmail one: every single mail I receive on Gmail is mirrored on Fastmail, so if something happens I can send a notice of the new address to my contacts, show Google the middle finger and move on without losing anything. The only annoyance is that until I keep the two accounts active, I'll receive two copies of the same message on my client (Claws Mail) but all it needs is firing up the function to delete duplicate messages every now and then.

Mirroring external mailboxes such as Gmail from Fastmail can be activated when creating a new account; so far it works really well.