Since iMessage is based on the same push technology apple uses for emails I am wondering whether it makes sense to turn off push for emails while having iMessage enabled to save battery?
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Turn off push for emails to save battery?
- Thread starter typicaluser
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If you're wanting to save battery, then yes, set email to Fetch. I have mine to fetch every 30 minutes.
I know switching off push system wide would save a whole lot of battery. But I wanted to know, with iMessage enabled (and other apps with notification alike), whether it saves battery (in a significant way) to switch push email off. To me it only saves a trivial amount of battery by having less screen awakening time and less alert sound.
Your thinking is correct. If you are using iCloud email, the battery impact of activating push email is minimal, since it shares the same signaling connection that is used by other apps that use Apple Push Notifications (like iMessage). It's probably more efficient than using automatic fetch with a short time interval.
If you are using another email service and push email via Exchange Active Sync, that's probably a bit less efficient, since it uses a separate connection (part of the EAS protocol).
Thanks for the insightful reply. I have a plain gmail account set up, not using Exchange. Does setting fetch for this account still make sense in saving battery?
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I assume you are using the Gmail app? In that case the same holds as for iCloud email, since the app also uses APN.
No, my gmail account is set up in Settings. I don't have Gmail app. So if I set push for this account what kind of connection would it use? Does it use APN as well?
So much misinformation in here...
It all depends on the volume and frequency of your mail. For example, if you get email constantly (some people do), say.. every ~10mins or so, it's going to cause my battery life drain (especially if your screen lights up each time) than if your phone checks only once every hour and then downloads the 5~10 emails.
However, say you only get a couple emails an hour, the difference will be negligible, so just use push
It all depends on the volume and frequency of your mail. For example, if you get email constantly (some people do), say.. every ~10mins or so, it's going to cause my battery life drain (especially if your screen lights up each time) than if your phone checks only once every hour and then downloads the 5~10 emails.
However, say you only get a couple emails an hour, the difference will be negligible, so just use push
In the stock mail app, the only way to get push email with Gmail is by setting it up as Exchange Active Sync.
No. If you use any app that is enabled for push notifiations like the OP does, the phone is regularly listening to the APN connection in any case, whether push email is enabled or not.
Didn't google stop supporting push through exchange? The only way to have gmail pushed to the iPhone is through the gmail app.
Don't the majority of the apps use push notifications for most people (unless they truly don't use such apps, which wouldn't be all that common, or have notifications disabled for them, which is probably not that common either)?
I'd assume most people use at least one app with push notifications. Also, the persistent notification connection is active as well if you have enabled certain iCloud features, such as "find my iPhone", automatic push of new purchases, or iCloud syncing. So activating push for iCloud email won't make a significant difference in battery consumption for most people.
There are 2 sides to this situation.
1. IF you are set to push and receive e-mails frequently it will keep your iPhone awake a lot.
2. IF you are set to Fetch and the frequency is too short (15min for example) then you are also waking your phone a lot even if you DONT have any new e-mails.
At least with Push your phone only wakes when you have a new e-mail whereas fetch checks your mailbox regardless.
Put it this way. Would you rather go to the post office every hour to see if you got any new packages or would you have them call you when you do?
My work e-mails sometimes carry urgency with them so I have mine set to push. It keeps my phone awake a lot but I don't miss any e-mails that don't fall into the 15-30 min fetch schedule and on slow day it's not waking up for nothing.
1. IF you are set to push and receive e-mails frequently it will keep your iPhone awake a lot.
2. IF you are set to Fetch and the frequency is too short (15min for example) then you are also waking your phone a lot even if you DONT have any new e-mails.
At least with Push your phone only wakes when you have a new e-mail whereas fetch checks your mailbox regardless.
Put it this way. Would you rather go to the post office every hour to see if you got any new packages or would you have them call you when you do?
My work e-mails sometimes carry urgency with them so I have mine set to push. It keeps my phone awake a lot but I don't miss any e-mails that don't fall into the 15-30 min fetch schedule and on slow day it's not waking up for nothing.
There is more to it than that. APN is optimized to use as little energy as possible. A main factor is that the push notification messages sent by the APN server are very small and are sent over a persistent TCP connection. Frequently polling the mail server via IMAP, on the other hand, requires much more complex transactions (TCP handshake, SSL authentication, IMAP transaction) and keeps the radio active for longer. This has a bigger impact on battery life than just briefly waking up the CPU.