Plenty of small teams run a shared address like support@ out of one Gmail account. Gmail fetches the mail from the host over POP ("Check mail from other accounts"), and someone answers with "Send mail as". Google says both of those go away for third-party accounts in January 2027.

What is changing

From Google's help pages:

  • POP fetching: "Gmail will no longer fetch emails from third-party accounts into your Gmail account with POP."
  • Send as: "You will no longer be able to send mail from third-party email accounts in Gmail on the web or in the Gmail mobile apps."
  • Gmailify: it takes no new users after the first quarter of 2026, and existing users can keep it until January 2027.

Google calls Q3 and Q4 2026 the transition period. In January 2027, "Gmail will fully remove 'Send as' for third-party accounts, Gmailify, and POP."

Who is not affected

  • Addresses hosted by Google. Google says you can keep using Send as for Google-hosted identities, so a Workspace address or alias is fine.
  • Apps that connect to Gmail itself over POP or IMAP. Google says those protocols stay supported.
  • Mail already imported. It stays in Gmail.

To check, open Settings > See all settings > Accounts and Import in Gmail. If "Check mail from other accounts" lists your support address, or you send as an address hosted outside Google, you need a new plan.

Your options

Receiving. Google's suggestion is automatic forwarding at the provider that hosts the address, so new mail arrives without POP.

Sending. Google suggests sending from the provider's own site, or using a desktop client connected over IMAP/SMTP.

That covers one person. A shared address has a second problem: forwarding to one Gmail account means one person holds the conversation. If several people answer support@, this is a good time to decide where those replies should live: a shared mailbox at your host, a help desk, or the chat tool your team already uses.

If your team works in Slack

We make RelayMail, which is one option for this case. You forward support@ to a Slack channel, each email becomes a thread, and a reply in the thread goes out as a normal email. It takes a forwarding rule and no mailbox login. It starts at $15 a month per inbox, with no per-seat pricing and a 14-day trial, and it isn't a help desk, so it has no assignment or SLA tracking.

We wrote up the steps here: Gmail POP and Send as are ending: forward support@ to Slack instead

Before January

  1. Check Accounts and Import in Gmail for third-party addresses.
  2. Turn on forwarding at the host and confirm it with a test email.
  3. Decide how replies will go out, and test that too.
  4. Remove the POP account from Gmail once mail arrives in the new place.

Sources: Changes to third-party email account support in Gmail, Upcoming changes to Gmailify and POP.