iOS 7 Gmail?

[w00t951]

With Mac OS 10.9, I noticed that the automatic Gmail setting in the Apple Mail application supports push notifications - it's only a fraction of a second behind the Gmail app on iOS in getting new mail.

Does the iOS 7 Apple Mail app's automatic Gmail configuration support push notifications as well, or does it only support fetch? Thanks!

 

[haxrnick]

One can only wish.

 

[liteshow]

With Mac OS 10.9, I noticed that the automatic Gmail setting in the Apple Mail application supports push notifications - it's only a fraction of a second behind the Gmail app on iOS in getting new mail.

Does the iOS 7 Apple Mail app's automatic Gmail configuration support push notifications as well, or does it only support fetch? Thanks!

Apple Mail App does not support IMAP-IDLE which is needed for push notification, so the answer is no. Not sure why Apple does not want to put that in their mail app?

 

[Armen]

It's Google who decided not to support push for iOS Mail not Apple.

 

[joejoejoe]

It's Google who decided not to support push for iOS Mail not Apple.

Not true at all.

Google came up with a workaround method (exchange) because Apple never put IMAP-IDLE on its phones like it does it's computers.

Once Gmail's mail app was up to speed in terms of design and reliability, I'm sure they canceled the exchange loophole in an effort to get more people on their app rather than the standard mail app.

Apple can bring push functionality to gmail accounts on their phones by releasing support for IDLE. It's been 7 years and we're still waiting.

 

[Armen]

Not true at all.

Google came up with a workaround method (exchange) because Apple never put IMAP-IDLE on its phones like it does it's computers.

Once Gmail's mail app was up to speed in terms of design and reliability, I'm sure they canceled the exchange loophole in an effort to get more people on their app rather than the standard mail app.

Apple can bring push functionality to gmail accounts on their phones by releasing support for IDLE. It's been 7 years and we're still waiting.

"Google came up with a workaround method (exchange)"

"They canceled the exchange loophole in an effort to get more people on their app rather than the standard mail app"

So basically Gmail that used to work with Push if you set it up as exchange no longer does because they cancelled it. How is this different than what I ultimately said? It used to work, it no longer works, Google made the change.

 

[joejoejoe]

"Google came up with a workaround method (exchange)"

"They canceled the exchange loophole in an effort to get more people on their app rather than the standard mail app"

So basically Gmail that used to work with Push if you set it up as exchange no longer does because they cancelled it. How is this different than what I ultimately said? It used to work, it no longer works, Google made the change.

It was exploiting a loophole. Gmail doesn't need to utilize Microsoft's services to make it's users happy, it's Apple who should offer Push to IMAP.

It's still Apple who's being very selective about how they're offering push on the phone, when they could easily enable a feature that all other smartphone software uses to give their devices push.

Hell, it's Apple that invented this glorious push notification system to begin with (before, companies like RIM used much more complex ways of delivering instant notifications to devices). The idea that I can get push on every single app on my phone other than the native mail app is absurd, and this is a fault of Apple's not googles.

 

[Armen]

It was exploiting a loophole. Gmail doesn't need to utilize Microsoft's services to make it's users happy, it's Apple who should offer Push to IMAP.

It's still Apple who's being very selective about how they're offering push on the phone, when they could easily enable a feature that all other smartphone software uses to give their devices push.

Hell, it's Apple that invented this glorious push notification system to begin with (before, companies like RIM used much more complex ways of delivering instant notifications to devices). The idea that I can get push on every single app on my phone other than the native mail app is absurd, and this is a fault of Apple's not googles.

I'm not happy about the change that made it stop working regardless if it was a loophole or not. Now I just forward Gmail to my Outlook.com account which does support push on the native e-mail app.

 

[bp1000]

I'm still shocked by this decision by google in 2013.

Push is essential and in high demand. In its place google has left us with a rubbish app that is super slow to load messages, doesn't integrate well with other apps and is terrible to read messages, text can be so small in mixed type messages.

You can't get around the fact that you need a local mail account to utilise sharing options.

I have no choice but to use fetch because the gmail app is terrible even now it supports background transfer which should trigger mail download from push notifications.

Also the workaround sending to outlook doesn't work well if you want to sync across devices and login to the gmail web interface on desktop, none of the read statues are maintained.

 

[Armen]

I'm still shocked by this decision by google in 2013.

Push is essential and in high demand. In its place google has left us with a rubbish app that is super slow to load messages, doesn't integrate well with other apps and is terrible to read messages, text can be so small in mixed type messages.

You can't get around the fact that you need a local mail account to utilise sharing options.

I have no choice but to use fetch because the gmail app is terrible even now it supports background transfer which should trigger mail download from push notifications.

Also the workaround sending to outlook doesn't work well if you want to sync across devices and login to the gmail web interface on desktop, none of the read statues are maintained.

I dont rely on Gmail for anything anymore. Everything is Outlook.com for me. The only reason I forwarded my Yahoo and Gmail accounts to Outlook was just in case I forgot to update my e-mail address at some site.

 

[C DM]

I'm still shocked by this decision by google in 2013.

Push is essential and in high demand. In its place google has left us with a rubbish app that is super slow to load messages, doesn't integrate well with other apps and is terrible to read messages, text can be so small in mixed type messages.

You can't get around the fact that you need a local mail account to utilise sharing options.

I have no choice but to use fetch because the gmail app is terrible even now it supports background transfer which should trigger mail download from push notifications.

Also the workaround sending to outlook doesn't work well if you want to sync across devices and login to the gmail web interface on desktop, none of the read statues are maintained.

Again, it seems that it's not so much Google as it is Apple not supporting the push aspect of IMAP which Google uses for push.

 

[Rigby]

It was exploiting a loophole. Gmail doesn't need to utilize Microsoft's services to make it's users happy, it's Apple who should offer Push to IMAP.

IMAP-IDLE was designed with desktop computers in mind and is very inefficient on mobile devices in terms of battery life and data usage (especially if you want push to work for multiple folders). Exchange Active Sync is not a "loophole". It was designed specifically for mobile devices and is much more efficient in this environment. There is currently no real alternative. There is a reason why Google continues to offer it for paying business customers.

The idea that I can get push on every single app on my phone other than the native mail app is absurd, and this is a fault of Apple's not googles.

What are you talking about? The native app supports push via APN from iCloud, and via EAS. If Google hadn't abandoned EAS for personal accounts we wouldn't even have this discussion.

 

[joejoejoe]

IMAP-IDLE was designed with desktop computers in mind and is very inefficient on mobile devices in terms of battery life and data usage (especially if you want push to work for multiple folders). Exchange Active Sync is not a "loophole". It was designed specifically for mobile devices and is much more efficient in this environment. There is currently no real alternative. There is a reason why Google continues to offer it for paying business customers.
What are you talking about? The native app supports push via APN from iCloud, and via EAS. If Google hadn't abandoned EAS for personal accounts we wouldn't even have this discussion.

I'm talking about Apple bringing push functionality to the Mail app the way it exists in all other apps. And thank you for clearing that up re: IMAP-IDLE, it's good to know.

I called it a loophole, which I'll admit isn't the best word, because it requires Google using a service from Microsoft, rather than something Apple could offer natively. EAS also limits syncing to a specific range of months, which always resulted in me having to go to the gmail app to search for older items. (Search in the iOS Mail app is a whole other discussion).

I would like to see Apple bring push functionality to the Mail app the way it exists for all other apps in the app store. They already have our usernames and passwords stored in settings. There should be a way to make this happen given how the system currently works and is designed.

I am not a programmer, so I could be dreaming things up that are impossible, but why can't Apple use the same push functionality it uses for all its apps for the native Mail app? And I'm talking going beyond iCloud and EAS.

 

[wwynne23]

Apple and Google need to start working together. Although they are hardware competitors, they are going to lead the industry into the next generation of technology, and will both be profitable. Put greed aside, Tim Cook!

 

[Armen]

Apple and Google need to start working together. Although they are hardware competitors, they are going to lead the industry into the next generation of technology, and will both be profitable. Put greed aside, Tim Cook!

And you naturally assume its Apple that's the greedy one? nice.

 

[The Highlander]

I'm not happy about the change that made it stop working regardless if it was a loophole or not. Now I just forward Gmail to my Outlook.com account which does support push on the native e-mail app.

Outlook's exchange is extremely selective... it can loose the connection and need a fetch very often.... Which will make the phone keep notifying you even after you have read it...

I decided to pay for Google Apps just to get back push.

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IMAP-IDLE was designed with desktop computers in mind and is very inefficient on mobile devices in terms of battery life and data usage (especially if you want push to work for multiple folders). Exchange Active Sync is not a "loophole". It was designed specifically for mobile devices and is much more efficient in this environment. There is currently no real alternative. There is a reason why Google continues to offer it for paying business customers.
What are you talking about? The native app supports push via APN from iCloud, and via EAS. If Google hadn't abandoned EAS for personal accounts we wouldn't even have this discussion.

You cannot do EAS for iCloud.

 

[Rigby]

I called it a loophole, which I'll admit isn't the best word, because it requires Google using a service from Microsoft

This is not true. Google has its own implementation of EAS (which is just a protocol specification).

rather than something Apple could offer natively.

I don't understand. Apple natively supports the EAS protocol in the mail app, primarily because it is the industry standard in enterprise mail.

EAS also limits syncing to a specific range of months

This is not a limitation of the protocol. The Apple developers simply chose to limit the date range in the mail app.

which always resulted in me having to go to the gmail app to search for older items. (Search in the iOS Mail app is a whole other discussion).

EAS allows searching mails on the server (i.e. the mails don't have to be downloaded on the device). This also works in iOS.

I am not a programmer, so I could be dreaming things up that are impossible, but why can't Apple use the same push functionality it uses for all its apps for the native Mail app? And I'm talking going beyond iCloud and EAS.

The native Mail app DOES use push notifications to implement push from iCloud email. Similarly, Google uses push notifications to implement push in the Gmail app. In order for the Mail app to work with other mail providers, these providers would have to explicitly implement push notifications and Apple would have to add code in the Mail app to enable it to register for push notifications from every single one of them. It's just not practical. Supporting a standardized mail protocol with push capability like EAS is a much better solution

 

[Rigby]

You cannot do EAS for iCloud.

I never claimed you could.