Popular app Airmail will charge a monthly fee for push notifications

The popular app Airmail for iOS has introduced a subscription model that requires users to pay for push notifications and support more than one account. Users are not happy.

Airmail is one of the most popular alternative mail apps for the iPhone or iPad. The app used to cost five euros as a one-time purchase, but developer Bloop changed the pricing model on Monday. The app is now free to download, but users must pay a monthly or annual subscription to receive push notifications and support multiple accounts at once.

Users will soon pay 2.99 euros per month or 9.99 for a year. Users who previously purchased the app will retain support for more than one account, but not push notifications. Users who have purchased the app in the past four months will also receive a four-month cooling-off period. According to the makers, it costs more and more money to support push notifications for so many users, because they use their own server infrastructure. The company tells Macrumors that push notifications are “an extra service with the app.”

Users are not happy with the changes. On Reddit, among others, many users denounce the new model. One of the problems appears to be that Airmail did not inform users in advance about the changes.