HN user
https://auth-email.com
I can’t comment on the Chinese research universities you mention, but the comparison with IITs is bizarre. They are notoriously extremely selective, and all set in lush, spacious, grounds. I don’t think they back up your point at at all.
Currently building https://auth-email.com
Many mainstream email providers have switched to require OAuth for login, but there are tons of clients and apps that don’t (or can’t) support OAuth.
Auth-Email is a secure, private relay that takes out the need to worry about OAuth: authorize mail accounts one time in our dashboard, then use an ordinary username and password for IMAP, POP, and SMTP via our server.
Probably the heavy AI-generated feel to the article.
That’s not the only option, though. There is also institutional membership, which is basically the same as the previous subscription model, just pitched the other way around. Authors whose institutions are members don’t have to pay the processing charge.
Here’s the list of current members: https://libraries.acm.org/acmopen/open-participants
If you need to handle OAuth, I have a service to help with that: https://auth-email.com
Authorize once in a web dashboard, then use your accounts as if they didn’t need OAuth (ie. normal IMAP, POP3 or SMTP).
OAuth is here to stay for major email providers (Outlook, Gmail, etc). Microsoft is dropping support for standard/basic authorization in April 2026, and Google has already done this. But plenty of devices and systems don't (and may never) support OAuth.
Auth-Email is a relay that lets you continue using traditional email auth methods even when your provider requires OAuth. Lots of other more advanced features too: all OAuth grant types, add-ins to modify behavior and lots more.