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iOS 27 Mail App: Is Native Better Than 3rd Party?

Would like to use Mail but the lack of Gmail push, snooze functionality, and folder access, and worse search, are dealbreakers. I know some or all of those might be Google problems or decisions, but the end result is I have to use the Gmail app.
 
I used to use Airmail, but switched back to Apple Mail years ago. Gmail isn’t my primary email, so I don’t care that it doesn’t have push notifications.

I don’t have any issues with read status syncing between my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. I just open the app, wait a moment for the server to sync, and it’s good.

I like my smart mailboxes for sorting my emails. Everything’s always where I want it.
 
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xpxp2002 said:
My issue with Apple Mail is the whole "read message on one device doesn't update on another device".

Oh yeah, and there's no way to create/delete folders in the mailbox with the Apple Mail app.
Click to expand...

Agreed on the read messages update, but you can create and delete folders in the mailbox if you get into Mailbox view of Apple Mail and click the Edit button in the top-right corner of the screen.
 
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CrisiomiroX said:
Would like to use Mail but the lack of Gmail push
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For anyone reading, what is the technology behind push really?

Like is it only a iCloud thing? Or does all email providers have it (gmail, outlook, proton mail, iCloud, etc), but it's only supported in their own email client (Mail.app, Spark, AirMail, Thunderbird, etc)?
 
Luftkopf said:
I like my smart mailboxes for sorting my emails. Everything’s always where I want it.
Click to expand...
Mind telling us some more? I've never gotten into smart mailboxes really.

Do you archive directly (so you don't have a billion read emails in the inbox), and then keep smart mailboxes to "tag" them?

I currently use normal mailboxes, but I'm a bit annoyed that they can only live in one mailbox. So maybe smart mailboxes are the way to go. But then the issue is that they don't sync to iOS and iPadOS right? Are they even on iCloud.com web client? Or do they even sync if I set up a new Mac from scratch?
 
I prefer Apple Mail. Have tried Outlook (no data protection and ads), Thunderbird (too outdated) and Spark (options I don‘t need)

Apple Mail is simple, fast, streamlined and for free. And it offers also export options, like pdf.

I use it with iCloud Mail and a small independent provider on Mac, iPhone and iPad.
 
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johannnn said:
Mind telling us some more? I've never gotten into smart mailboxes really.

Do you archive directly (so you don't have a billion read emails in the inbox), and then keep smart mailboxes to "tag" them?

I currently use normal mailboxes, but I'm a bit annoyed that they can only live in one mailbox. So maybe smart mailboxes are the way to go. But then the issue is that they don't sync to iOS and iPadOS right? Are they even on iCloud.com web client? Or do they even sync if I set up a new Mac from scratch?
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That’s their weak point, they don’t sync to iOS/icloud.com.

I use smart mailboxes with various topic so I can always find what I want. I’ve got one for work email, and several for other topics, a mailing list that I actually follow, church roster emails, etc. That way I don’t need to search for them. They’re all just in their mailboxes.
 
johannnn said:
For anyone reading, what is the technology behind push really?

Like is it only a iCloud thing? Or does all email providers have it (gmail, outlook, proton mail, iCloud, etc), but it's only supported in their own email client (Mail.app, Spark, AirMail, Thunderbird, etc)?
Click to expand...

Good question. My understanding is that it's Apple proprietary.

The standard "push" technology for mails is IDLE. This is supported on MacOS, but not on IOS.

I assume Apple's excuse is "poor battery!" but in reality they're ringfencing iCloud mail. However, they also support Microsoft's EAS, which I assume involved some kind of monetary transfer between Apple and MS 🙂
 
johannnn said:
For anyone reading, what is the technology behind push really?

Like is it only a iCloud thing? Or does all email providers have it (gmail, outlook, proton mail, iCloud, etc), but it's only supported in their own email client (Mail.app, Spark, AirMail, Thunderbird, etc)?
Click to expand...
It’s called Exchange ActiveSync. It was developed by Microsoft to provide mobile-friendly (power-efficient with minimal data use) push sync for email, largely as a competing option to BlackBerry that didn’t require BES.

It natively worked with Microsoft Exchange, which was a big deal for organizations when most ran their own Exchange email infrastructure.

By 2010 or so, many public email providers were supporting EAS. Gmail used to, but they stopped supporting it on personal accounts in order to steer users into using their app. They still support it on enterprise Google Apps for Work (or whatever they’re called nowadays) mail accounts.
 
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Am forced to use Outlook on my workplace-issued phone, and have low opinion of it.

Receiving emails off the server works great, that's the good part.

Sending, not so much. Many emails either hang or fail to send without warning. Had a time-important email yesterday that hung and finally sent four hours later. Thank you MS! Would 100% rather use Apple's Mail (which we did use and worked great until Outlook got mandated).
 
Native is not better. Really, it is just personal preference. I like to use Microsoft Outlook since that is what I am used to on all my devices, no matter which operating system.
 
I ran into issues where Mail lost several of my emails. There was no discernible reason why, I’m not the user with ten thousand emails over a long period. I found Hey around then and switched. However, I switched to Fastmail earlier this year. There are still features I miss having in Hey, but Fastmail has been better overall for my use cases.
These are full email accounts, not email clients.
I now only use Mail on my iPhone for school accounts, mainly because I can’t stand Outlook and Gmail, the former app is awful in my opinion. I’m surprised to see any praise for Outlook here.
 
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