What's happening with Google accounts Friday?

Question

I know something is happening with Google accounts entering a new level of security Friday. I don't know what is involved, and I've heard rumors this includes things like shutting down IMAP/POP3 access to GMail. Can someone explain, because my Googling skills, ironically, have failed and I feel like I'm hearing the results of 10 levels of signal corruption like through a game of telephone.The only thing I'm fairly sure of is that it in some way relates to third-party apps. But I don't even know if that means people who use alternative email clients or apps who use Google OAuth2. I also heard that iPhone based accounts have a longer period of time, but that also seems possible.Thanks.

jstrebel · Accepted Answer

I received a warning messages from Google a couple of days ago. GMail is no longer supporting password-based login or special privileges for third-party apps. If your email client wants to access your GMail account, it must support OAuth2, so that it can use Google's own authentication service. For example, Mozilla Thunderbird works just fine (I tested it); I read that the latest versions of MS Outlook are also fine. For me, this is a high motivation to get rid of my GMail accounts, and move to some real, privacy-friendly email provider.