Port Thunderbird to Android

[tdulcet]

Create a Thunderbird app for Android, similar to Firefox for Android. There are a few mobile email apps, but none has the same features, security and privacy that Thunderbird currently has on the desktop. People are using mobile devices more every year and for Thunderbird to survive, it will need to have a presence on phones and tablets, just as Firefox now does. Mozilla estimated that there are 25 million current active users of Thunderbird on the desktop, and this will only increase with a mobile version. Over 100 million people have downloaded Firefox for Android in the 5 years since it was released. Thunderbird for Android could reach comparable numbers in the same period considering that there is similar demand for a free and open source email client. There is also recently a significant need for an independent e-mail app since Google removed the stock e-mail app in favor of Gmail on Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and above. This would work well in combination with #75.

For more information see:

• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680080
• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=788897
• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=658570
• https://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/topics/thunderbird_client_for_android

[naveenjafer]

@tdulcet is this project still currently active? What about the roadmap for the same?

[AntoineTurmel]

@naveenjafer It's not active and there is no roadmap for it.
Mozilla Corp is not really working on Thunderbird anymore aside compiling and publishing it with changes from community.
You are free to work on it, but it's not an easy task.

[naveenjafer]

@AntoineTurmel Thanks for the tip, any project involving JS that you would know of that currently requires some work and also has a decent roadmap for the near future? Any pointers would be really helpful. Quite a lot of things have been abandoned in the mozilla ecosystem of late, it has become a daunting task to find the right one to work on.

[tdulcet]

@naveenjafer This project is not yet active, but we are currently looking for people to contribute. Feel free to work on it. The UI for Thunderbird for Android would involve some JS and you could possibility reuse some of the components of Firefox for Android.
There are many other Mozilla related projects here: https://bugzil.la/kw:student-project.