AOL has informed applicable users that it will be dropping support for accessing email from Apple’s iCloud service from its recently launched Alto webmail client. Alto is a web-based mail client that intelligently sorts and integrates email from services such as iCloud Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL. AOL has informed iCloud users who have logged into Alto that support for iCloud will be dropped on December 2nd:
Thanks for using Alto to read and send mail from your @iCloud, @me or @mac account. We’ve been honored to host those accounts and get great, positive feedback on the experience from users like you. But we’re sad to say that Alto will no longer support iCloud accounts as of December 2, 2013. We sincerely regret the frustration this will cause.
iCloud accounts will automatically be disabled in Alto on that date, but users can begin the process early by removing iCloud accounts from Alto manually. All iCloud accounts, no matter if the domain is @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com will no longer be supported. AOL has not shared why it is dropping support for Apple’s email service, and AOL does not appear to be dropping support for any other provider.
Full email below:
Hey there, Thanks for using Alto to read and send mail from your @iCloud, @me or @mac account. We’ve been honored to host those accounts and get great, positive feedback on the experience from users like you. But we’re sad to say that Alto will no longer support iCloud accounts as of December 2, 2013. We sincerely regret the frustration this will cause. You can close your account now by clicking the Plus sign (+) on the left of your Alto inbox, then clicking the iCloud account name and the Close Alto Account button at the bottom of the column that opens. Or you can simply wait and do nothing and you will automatically lose access on December 2nd. We would love to continue giving you Alto’s great view of your non-iCloud email accounts. Any other supported IMAP-accessible email will continue to work, including Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail and others. If you already added other accounts to this one, you can sign into Alto with one of those and re-add the other(s) to it. Unfortunately any stacks you might have created will have to be rebuilt. Again – we are very sorry for this inconvenience! If you have any questions, please reach us at altomail.feedback@aol.com. Thank you, The Alto Team
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AOL is still around? I love watching companies put the nails in their own coffins. Why watching Microsoft has been so much fun the last few years.
AOL is still around? REALLY?
AOL have moved away from the ISP game and they’re focusing on web content now. They own a metric fuckton of blogs and news sites including Engadget, Huffington Post and 9to5Mac’s arch-enemy TUAW.
Some internal documents they have were leaked a few years ago, showing their reporters are under a lot of pressure to get a high number of views on their posts. It’s all about ad revenue.
Intelligence and email is an oxymoron. There is no way to make the crapfest that is email intelligent.
I’m guessing Apple told them to drop iCloud support.
AOL can never be trusted with the new services they create and trumpet. I have had my email through AOL since 1993 (no, I’m not 90, thanks), and I fell for Project Phoenix, which they pulled the plug on. I’m apparently only kind of a moron, so I knew better than to sign up for Alto. Yay me.
Right now, AOL’s mail server is down. So says some dude on Twitter. I could call them but it will take a year off my life and eat whatever soul I have.