I run my own XMPP server (prosody), yet use google apps for my domain; due to an annoying chain of dependencies, this means I can't use Google Photos.
To allow other google users reach you at your non-google server, Talk+Hangouts have to be disabled in the google apps admin console -> Google+ doesn't work without Hangouts enabled -> Google Photos doesn't work without Google+ enabled.
The fact this happens seems to mean that google does not want to play on a level field; but wants to build a walled garden.
Google Apps have always been a tack-on for many of Google's smaller services. Google+ was completely unavailable for Apps at first. Now Inbox is unavailable.
It's a fairly conservative product targeted primarily at organizations who value stability over new features. "A personal account with vanity address," while popular with geeks, is not really the intended use.
Do you have any suggested alternatives for free email hosting with BYO domain?
I don't entirely trust myself to run an email server.
Even if I do, are there trustworthy secondary MXs?
I also really like google voice; and am sad I can no longer call from inside gmail.
I don't know of any other reliable services for completely free calls to USA.
How are you trying to do it? If I hit the search icon on the chat pane, I can type in a number and call from Google Voice. It opens a new Hangouts window, but that's what it's been doing for as long as I remember, and certainly the last year at least.
> How are you trying to do it? If I hit the search icon on the chat pane, I can type in a number and call from Google Voice. It opens a new Hangouts window, but that's what it's been doing for as long as I remember, and certainly the last year at least.
If you run your own XMPP server, you have to disable google Talk, which disables the calling from gmail (in addition to much more)
Personally, I use Google Apps with a vanity domain :) That's how I know. The only (free) alternative left seems to be Yandex[1] which comes with its own host of privacy issues.
You don't really need a secondary MX when running your own mail server. Senders will keep retrying for a week or so when your server is down.
Secondary makes the whole setup much more complicated because then you need to synchronize anti-spam and other configuration between them. And move data back when the primary server comes back online.
[1] https://pdd.yandex.ru/domains_add/ You need a regular Yandex Mail account first. The domain panel is in Russian only but works with Google translate. Webmail is decent and available in English.
> Do you have any suggested alternatives for free email hosting with BYO domain?
I've been using hotmail/livemail/outlook.com with a custom domain (dns hosted elsewhere) for free for the past 10 years. I have enabled two factor authentication and also use this account as my primary Windows login. I'm not sure if this is still available (i consider it almost too nice to be true) but this has always worked very well for me. The place I set this up was https://domains.live.com
Edit: it is indeed not available anymore for free, I can continue using existing accounts, but cannot manage/add accounts using my domain unless I upgrade to Office 365.
I just use my domain registrar's mail server and forward my vanity email to a standard gmail address - then you can set your default From: to be your vanity address in your gmail and enjoy the benefits of having a completely standard gmail account.
Even if you don't use Google Apps it's also not possible to have own XMPP address that happens to look the same as an e-mail address that Google knows about (even if it's non-Google address and non-Google XMPP). When they see it they route GTalk users' messages straight to GMail chat, bypassing XMPP.
> Even if you don't use Google Apps it's also not possible to have own XMPP address that happens to look the same as an e-mail address that Google knows about (even if it's non-Google address and non-Google XMPP). When they see it they route GTalk users' messages straight to GMail chat, bypassing XMPP.
To allow other google users reach you at your non-google server, Talk+Hangouts have to be disabled in the google apps admin console -> Google+ doesn't work without Hangouts enabled -> Google Photos doesn't work without Google+ enabled.
The fact this happens seems to mean that google does not want to play on a level field; but wants to build a walled garden.