Over one billion users) it’s just another tab in their Web browser. There are third-party Gmail programs - I use an app called Kiwi - but for the vast majority of its over 1 billion active users (yes, you read that correctly. But Gmail is a bit of a wrinkle because it’s not really a separate program but rather a service that operates within your Web browser. What’s amazing is that the answer still holds to be true if you have an email program and want to set it as the default for new email messages on your MacOS 11 system, you’ll still want to go into the settings in Apple Mail and choose the program in question.

You’re right that I last addressed this question quite a while ago my 17yo daughter wasn’t even walking when I wrote about How to Set The Default Email Program in MacOS X.