Interview: Infomaniak reveals its plan to make you quit Gmail

With 1.8 billion users around the world and some 121 billion emails sent every day, Gmail remains unbeatable and ranks first in the email market. email messaging. The fact remains that competitors continue to develop with one goal: attracting new users by making migration as easy as possible. This is particularly the case ofInfomaniak Mailthe messaging service of the Swiss host.

Facing Gmail, we find the services of other GAFAM, such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple iCloud. And in the face of all these, smaller players often focus on privacy, such as Proton or Skiff. For its part, Infomaniak also wishes to highlight its eco-responsible side.

Julien Arnoux, Team Lead & PO Mail, Calendar, Contacts at Infomaniak agreed to answer our questions.

How many Infomaniak Mail users do you have today?

Julien Arnoux: Nearly 2 million people use our messaging daily, and this is constantly growing since we offered free email addresses like @etik.com @ik.me And @ikmail.com with 20 GB of storage just for emails.

What is the typical Infomaniak Mail user profile? Are we more for personal or professional use?

Julien Arnoux: For the majority, these are businesses, but the trend will be reversed with free email addresses which are attracting more and more people looking for an alternative to Google for emails and drive.

Companies are now discovering our Mail Service with kSuite which allows them to access all our productivity tools. They appreciate being able to collaborate and manage their communication and data securely within the same ecosystem.

Among the users, many come from Gmail and several of them point the lack of labels. The team seems to have been working on this for a few months. Could you tell us more?

Julien Arnoux: The labels are well under development, this functionality was blocked by a technical limit which is being lifted on our email infrastructure. In the meantime, we took the opportunity to prepare for the arrival of other highly requested features such as scheduled sending of emails and the ability to postpone processing messages until later using snooze. The labels are therefore well planned, but it is still difficult to commit to a precise arrival date.

In addition to the IMAP standard, you offer a Mail application, you plan to add calendars and contacts (in addition to the CalDAV and CardDAV standards). Integrated with infomaniak Mail or separately?

Julien Arnoux: While waiting for a dedicated app for calendars, it is already possible to easily synchronize appointments and contacts with native Android and iOS applications via our Infomaniak Mail mobile application. Simply install a configuration profile which is automatically generated from the main menu of the mobile app.

You recently launched an AI assistant for writing emails, which is currently being deployed. What motivated this feature?

Julien Arnoux: We want to offer our users the best, without compromising on our commitments to privacy and our ecological and social values. Generative AI is becoming essential in our daily uses and email writing and correction lends itself particularly well to it. This is why users have the choice of using sovereign AI or ChatGPT to write, respond and correct their emails.

In the future, do you already have an idea of ​​where AI will take its place at Infomaniak? (Domain search, Site Creator…)?

Julien Arnoux: Initially, the objective is to further improve the quality of texts generated by AI. For example, the mobile app will very soon take into account the context of exchanges to formulate more relevant responses. Very soon, we will also offer developers the possibility of using our sovereign AI via API in their applications at very competitive prices.

It is also planned to automate the classification of processed emails and kDrive files based on previous classifications. Many other features are currently being considered: offering a summary of your working day in kChat, automatically generating minutes of kMeet meetings, automatically proposing appointments based on the availability of participants, automatically create websites with unique logos, texts and images in several languages… the possibilities are almost endless!

By not offering any intermediate option between 15 GB free and 2 TB paid, kDrive ultimately seems to target professionals more. Is this the path that Infomaniak Mail will gradually take?

Julien Arnoux: This is feedback that we regularly receive regarding kDrive and the basic idea was to offer an extremely aggressive price for 2 TB of storage. Without being able to say too much yet at this stage, it is quite possible that intermediate offers dedicated to individuals will emerge in 2024, and this could also concern email addresses.

People are increasingly concerned about their privacy. Infomaniak presents Mail as “secure messaging” which faces GAFAM. However, you do not offer encryption at rest or sending encrypted emails like Proton, Skiff and co. Is this aspect planned on your short, medium or long term roadmap?

Julien Arnoux: The big difference with the web giants is that Infomaniak is an independent company and we do not analyze data to generate revenue. All data is hosted in Switzerland and the application layer is also developed in Switzerland. At Infomaniak, your emails are stored in our ecological data centers and the software layer which processes your data is also controlled internally, without intermediaries or American technologies. This is what makes it possible to guarantee compliance with our commitments and real respect for European laws.

As for encryption, that’s also on the to-do list. Several avenues are being explored at the moment and it is already possible to encrypt your emails with our Webmail using the Mailvelope extension for example. For the more tech-savvy, it is possible to use a client like Thunderbird and activate PGP encryption. Finally, it is very easy to secure very sensitive information using our free kPaste service which allows you to encrypt any text with its own password. This free service even allows you to self-destruct your message after reading it for the first time.

The functionality of Gmail or Outlook can be extended with third-party apps. Are you planning to integrate APIs, particularly for professional uses (for example to find Trello or Zoom in Infomaniak Mail)?

Julien Arnoux: Our focus is firstly on adding highly requested features within Infomaniak Mail and Calendar, and continuing to improve the user experience while developing synergy between our different tools. We have nothing to be ashamed of in the face of the tech giants and we still have a lot to accomplish before considering interaction with third-party products. This current limitation is also an important security guarantee for our users.

What can Infomaniak Mail users expect in 2024?

Julien Arnoux: Apart from new integrations with the kSuite ecosystem, great features will arrive such as scheduled sending of emails, snooze, meeting room management in Calendar, intelligent event planning as well as significant improvements for managing signatures and autoresponders in businesses. The best way to follow all of this closely is to follow us on X (formerly Twitter).