'I'd rather go without email altogether': The internet reacts to Elon Musk teasing Gmail rival Xmail

Elon Musk has seemingly teased his next big project and it’s a potential Gmail rival.

Gmail is the most popular email provider, with 1.8 billion active user accounts worldwide, it’s no surprise the tech billionaire, whose net worth reached a new historic peak this month with no sign of slowing down, wants his own email service.

The furore around “Xmail” actually started all the way back in February. A fake viral message made the rounds on social media that month stating that Gmail was due to shut down on 1 August.

As we now obviously know, that message was completely fabricated, and tech journalists also confirmed it to be a hoax, as did the official Gmail X profile.

At around the same time, X security engineer Nate McGrady tweeted “when we making XMail?” and Musk replied with two words in the comments: “It’s coming”.

Experts immediately shared their concerns about how Musk’s Xmail would come to fruition, including a cybersecurity analyst who shared via Forbes that there are “a number of email services [that] already exist by the name of Xmail.”

However this hurdle has not discouraged the Tesla CEO from going ahead with his plan for an email service. On Sunday (15 December) One of the billionaire’s fanboys declared: “Having an @x.com email address is the only thing that can stop me from using Gmail!”

The post has so far racked up 49.2 million views. Musk saw the tweet and gave a foreboding answer: “Interesting. We need to rethink how messaging, including email, works overall.”

Musk’s response has been met with a mixed reaction. Although a significant number of his followers have claimed they would pledge allegiance with Xmail, others are apparently less willing to switch.

Check out some of the best reactions about Xmail below:

"Nobody throwing out their gmail accounts for an X email service lol," one wrote.

"Hotmail users watching the Gmail/Xmail drama," another said.

More took a backwards seat as the debate was kicking off.

Another commented: "Xmail will be the reason People like my husband who still have a Hotmail account and are not GMAIL fans finally have a reason to live in the now…"

"Will I abandon Gmail for Xmail? No. Will I give Xmail a try anyway? Yes. Wow," a commentator added.

"I've been considering leaving gmail a while and I just heard about xmail, and I just want to be clear, I'd stay with gmail until the heat death of the universe before I'd EVER trust elon with an email account. I'd rather go without email period," someone wrote.

"I use my Gmail more than My Hotmail I'm not leaving Gmail," a user added.

Others said they'd be open to switching to a rival email provider.

And people had fun using a few familiar memes too.

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