Short transcript from a YouTube #short by Mark Shust explaining that Magento 2.4.6 adds native SMTP transport options in the Admin under Advanced → System → Mail Sending Settings. Previously Magento used local sendmail (less reliable); the new settings let admins choose SMTP, specify host, port, username/password, AUTH and SSL, and remove the need for third-party SMTP modules.
In all versions of Magento 2, 4, 5 and before, we aren't able to send email using SMTP if we went to the admin and then went to Advanced system and then expanded mail sending settings. We can set settings here to send email, but this is only for configuring Sendmail to send these emails. Sendmail uses a local program to send these emails and isn't as consistent or reliable as SMTP in Magento246. If we look at the same settings area, we will now see a new transport option where we can unselect and select smtp. You can then define a host for your SMTP provider, the port, and a username and password to go along with it. You can also set the AUTH and SSL settings for the SMTP provider. These additional options will send your email via an SMTP provider and eliminate the need for any of those third party modules.
