Push notifications for Gmail

[mentaluproar]

I have several Gmail accounts, 3 personal,1 university account, a yahoo account and an iCloud email account. In trying to trace poor battery life issues with my iPhone 5S, I'm tracking down battery hogs and fetching with 4 gmail accounts is supposedly a big one.

I really like the built-in email client and would like to continue using it. I suspect there may be an app or service that can send push notifications for my gmail accounts to my phone, telling me to open the built-in email client and then let it fetch the message.

I don't know of any such app but surely one exists. If the gmail app can do push, there is clearly a way someone else can too.

Failing that, I wonder if I could set my synology NAS to handle my emails for me, including push notifications.

 

[thenewone]

If you are jailbroken you can use Push for Gmail

 

[sohaloh]

I use nueva sync. It's a Microsoft exchange service that syncs and pushes your email, contacts and calendars. It free for a week and then costs 30 bucks per year if you want to continue. I use it for one gmail account and it works perfectly. I'm not sure how it would work for 3 accounts whether you'd have to pay for each or bunch the 3 together.

 

[err404]

Try Mailbox. It will support your gmail and yahoo accounts with reliable push notifications. While I really like the default mail app, Mailbox has become my go to app. But even if you don't use it for managing your email, you can still use it for notifications.
I think technically your email will go through the Mailbox servers, so it may not work for you if you have privacy concerns.

You could also try the Google Gmail app for push notifications for gmail. Google's app was terrible at managing two accounts so I never really used it for anything but notifications.

 

[C DM]

Try Mailbox. It will support your gmail and yahoo accounts with reliable push notifications. While I really like the default mail app, Mailbox has become my go to app. But even if you don't use it for managing your email, you can still use it for notifications.
I think technically your email will go through the Mailbox servers, so it may not work for you if you have privacy concerns.

You could also try the Google Gmail app for push notifications for gmail. Google's app was terrible at managing two accounts so I never really used it for anything but notifications.

I could be off, but I think their Yahoo! Mail support isn't functional at this point (just Gmail and iCloud).

 

[HowEver]

Use the built-in mail client still, but also install the Gmail app from Google and let it push notices.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail-email-from-google/id422689480?mt=8

 

[err404]

I could be off, but I think their Yahoo! Mail support isn't functional at this point (just Gmail and iCloud).

Currently the app description lists Gmail, iCloud and Yahoo. I have not tried it with Yahoo myself, so you may be right if there are problems in the build. Assuming the description is correct it is a good match for OP.

 

[C DM]

Currently the app description lists Gmail, iCloud and Yahoo. I have not tried it with Yahoo myself, so you may be right if there are problems in the build. Assuming the description is correct it is a good match for OP.

Yeah, unfortunately they ran into issues with that it seems: http://www.mailboxapp.com/blog/?p=1#yahoo-support-is-currently-disabled.

As you said though, it shouldn't affect its possible use in relation to Gmail, but having come across that piece of news regarding Mailbox's support of Yahoo! Mail recently, I thought I would mention it.

 

[ScottW1]

Use the built-in mail client still, but also install the Gmail app from Google and let it push notices.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail-email-from-google/id422689480?mt=8

That was going to be my answer - but will that work for multiple Gmail accounts? I only have one Gmail account and this is exactly what I do, but when I looked at the app, I didn't see an obvious way to set up multiple accounts.

 

[Todd B.]

Just set Gmail to forward all your mail to a Outlook.com account and then set up Outlook.com in the Mail app and use that.

Don't use Gmail because they took away the ability to use push notifications because they want to be able to steal your data from using the official app.

 

[C DM]

Just set Gmail to forward all your mail to a Outlook.com account and then set up Outlook.com in the Mail app and use that.

Don't use Gmail because they took away the ability to use push notifications because they want to be able to steal your data from using the official app.

Yeah, because without the use of the official app Google doesn't have access to your Gmail data or what you do with it, right?

 

[Abazigal]

That was going to be my answer - but will that work for multiple Gmail accounts? I only have one Gmail account and this is exactly what I do, but when I looked at the app, I didn't see an obvious way to set up multiple accounts.

Having two active mail apps pushing notifications to you is going to kill your battery life real quick.

I am currently using mailbox, but with 2 gmail accounts, and I find my battery life is excellent. If they ever fix support for Yahoo, definitely consider it - it's awesome.

 

[C DM]

Having two active mail apps pushing notifications to you is going to kill your battery life real quick.

I am currently using mailbox, but with 2 gmail accounts, and I find my battery life is excellent. If they ever fix support for Yahoo, definitely consider it - it's awesome.

it wouldn't really be that much different than having a couple of any other apps pushing notifications. And certainly quite a few of us have multiple apps pushing notifications most of the time.

 

[Abazigal]

it wouldn't really be that much different than having a couple of any other apps pushing notifications. And certainly quite a few of us have multiple apps pushing notifications most of the time.

I don't know, for some reason, it was really bad when I had both IOS mail and Gmail app active. I could really see the battery percentage ticking down every so often, so I suspect it's more than just the push notifications

 

[ScottW1]

Having two active mail apps pushing notifications to you is going to kill your battery life real quick.

Completely disagree. Push only uses battery when an incoming notification occurs. Unless you are getting mail every 5 minutes, this isn't going to be a problem.

Using fetch to check a bunch of accounts every 15 minutes, when most of of those accounts only get mail a few times a day, is a much bigger battery drain than using push for those same accounts.

By the way, I have multiple push email accounts now (iCloud, Yahoo, Outlook.com, and Gmail via the Gmail app) as well as other applications that use push -- and have no battery issues whatsoever.

 

[GreyOS]

Push only uses battery when an incoming notification occurs. Unless you are getting mail every 5 minutes, this isn't going to be a problem.

Not quite, it has to use battery to maintain an active connection with Apple's push servers, which all 3rd party app notifications go through. But yeah, maintaining this connection shouldn't be a huge strain on the battery. Remember though for the built in Mail app, a separate connection must be maintained for each exchange account using push. Each one will use some battery.

 

[ScottW1]

Not quite, it has to use battery to maintain an active connection with Apple's push servers, which all 3rd party app notifications go through. But yeah, maintaining this connection shouldn't be a huge strain on the battery. Remember though for the built in Mail app, a separate connection must be maintained for each exchange account using push. Each one will use some battery.

I agree with you that maintaining connections is NOT a strain on the battery.

The real key to whether push uses any significant amount of battery or not is related to (1) How frequently you get notifications, and (2) What the target application does with that notification. If the notifications are super frequent, or the target application does something significant upon receipt, then sure -- those push notifications are going to drive battery usage.

But we're talking about Email here, and for most people Push is going to be way more efficient than fetching on a frequent basis, especially if they have several accounts. The exception would be someone who gets mail every two minutes all day long, and is constantly getting push notifications. In that scenario, turning off push and using fetch to "batch" the gathering of mail would likely be more efficient.

The best way to save battery is to turn off the phone. But I have found it much less useful that way.

 

[GreyOS]

The best way to save battery is to turn off the phone. But I have found it much less useful that way.

Haha yeah. Agreed with you that persisting the push connection is next to nothing compared to constant fetches

 

[C DM]

Not quite, it has to use battery to maintain an active connection with Apple's push servers, which all 3rd party app notifications go through. But yeah, maintaining this connection shouldn't be a huge strain on the battery. Remember though for the built in Mail app, a separate connection must be maintained for each exchange account using push. Each one will use some battery.

Why separate push connections for each (exchange) mail account?

 

[GreyOS]

Why separate push connections for each (exchange) mail account?

TBH I don't actually know the ins and outs for sure, but it's an educated guess and a fair assumption: connection to the mail provider servers will at the very least be on a provider basis, if not an account basis. e.g. an Outlook account will have to connect to Outlook servers and a Gmail account (with a paid Google Apps account, i.e. with push) will have to connect to Gmail servers.

If you have two accounts from the same provider, I don't know if two separate exchange connections are persisted or if they are consolidated into one persistent connection.

Basically, Mail's Exchange support doesn't go through Apple's push service, it is a direct connection. Third party apps can't offer direct Exchange support, only APNs (Apple Push Notification service) support. Notifications are sent from the app publisher to Apple's server, which is why apps like Mailbox actually check your email on their servers, then they push new emails to Apple's servers, which push it to your phone.