GNOME Online Accounts is an open source application that provides users with an easy way to log into their favorite online accounts under the GNOME desktop environment.
The software has been designed from the ground up to offer complete access to the entire online identity of a user to several GNOME components and applications, such as contacts, calendar, email, chat and documents.
It can be accessed from the GNOME Control Center, simply by clicking on the Online Accounts entry under the Personal section. Its minimalistic user interface allows users to add, remove and configure their online, email or chat accounts.
Supports a wide variety of protocols
The program supports the Google, ownCloud, Facebook, Flickr, Windows Live (MSN), Microsoft Exchange, and other services like IMAP and SMTP email accounts, enterprise login (Kerberos), as well as Jabber, People Nearby, AIM, Gadu-Gadu, GroupWise, ICQ, IRC, Mxit, MySpace, SIP, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Japan, and Zephyr chat accounts.
Users will be able to overview accounts, as well as to authenticate with a single or multiple online or chat accounts simultaneously. It is basically a central place for storing all of your digital accounts.
It’s a backend for several projects
While the application does not even work without the Telepathy unified framework, several GNOME projects depend on this software, including Bijiben, GNOME Contacts, GNOME Photos, GNOME Documents, GNOME Online Miners, and GNOME Control Center.
Immediately after settings an account, some of the aforementioned applications will take certain information from the respective account and display it in its own window. For example, when setting up a Google account, the GNOME Documents application will display all of your Google documents.
In addition, the integrated calendar application shown on the panel will also display calendar information fetched directly from your Google account. Another example is the GNOME Contacts application, which can display all of your Google contacts.
Bottom line
In conclusion, GNOME Online Accounts proves to be an essential component of the entire GNOME ecosystem, especially for modern users who live in the digital era.
