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Using a Gmail address on Apple Mail app?

I

iOSUser7

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 23, 2014
662
616
Hi folks!

I am starting to get tired of Google’s Gmail app because of its lack of 3D Touch features and most importantly because it doesn’t even have the most basic feature any mail app should have which is a « Mark as read » function built in the notifications.

I would like to use the stock iOS Mail app however I remember some time ago, I believe it was in 2014, something was broken and you could not receive push notifications from the stock iOS Mail app if you were using a @gmail.com address. This is when I started to use the official Gmail app from Google because back then the only way to know if you had received any mail was to manually refresh your inbox which was a pain in the ass. And I know I wasn’t the only one experiencing this issue, maybe some of you guys may remember it too.

So to the people who are using a @gmail.com address in the stock iOS mail app today in 2018, can you tell me if the issue have been fixed or not?

Thank you very much.
 
iOSUser7 said:
Hi folks!

I am starting to get tired of Google’s Gmail app because of its lack of 3D Touch features and most importantly because it doesn’t even have the most basic feature any mail app should have which is a « Mark as read » function built in the notifications.

I would like to use the stock iOS Mail app however I remember some time ago, I believe it was in 2014, something was broken and you could not receive push notifications from the stock iOS Mail app if you were using a @gmail.com address. This is when I started to use the official Gmail app from Google because back then the only way to know if you had received any mail was to manually refresh your inbox which was a pain in the ass. And I know I wasn’t the only one experiencing this issue, maybe some of you guys may remember it too.

So to the people who are using a @gmail.com address in the stock iOS mail app today in 2018, can you tell me if the issue have been fixed or not?

Thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Google stopped supporting push for iOS Mail a while back. You could still fetch at timed intervals. It's basically mostly related to notifications.

I just have the Gmail app simply to have it notify me of new emails with push notifications and then access the Mail app when I want to actually read the emails, or send new mail, etc.
 
Yun0 said:
I gave up on stock mail & went to - Edison Mail by Edison Software Inc. https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/email-edison-mail/id922793622?mt=8

Never looked back, full push on everything including Google, uses less space not never ending growing cache like stock mail, push when in low power mode etc..
Click to expand...
Is one of the potential concerns/downsides when it comes to apps like that which can support push for Gmail is that they basically use/store your credentials in some way on their servers in order to be able to support push (or push-like) delivery of new messages for Gmail, for example?
 
I use the stock iOS Mail app. Right now, I use it for my work email, my iCloud email, 2 gmail accounts, and personal email account run through my own managed server.

I get notifications on my gmail accounts very quickly. I just did a test sending an email to one of them, and I saw my unread count for that account on my phone increment within seconds.
 
C DM said:
Google stopped supporting push for iOS Mail a while back. You could still fetch at timed intervals. It's basically mostly related to notifications.

I just have the Gmail app simply to have it notify me of new emails with push notifications and then access the Mail app when I want to actually read the emails, or send new mail, etc.
Click to expand...
Is there any reason they did this? Also, interestingly enough, push notifications works perfectly on the Mac.
eoblaed said:
I use the stock iOS Mail app. Right now, I use it for my work email, my iCloud email, 2 gmail accounts, and personal email account run through my own managed server.

I get notifications on my gmail accounts very quickly. I just did a test sending an email to one of them, and I saw my unread count for that account on my phone increment within seconds.
Click to expand...
You are talking about push notifications right? The ones that get displayed on the lock screen as soon as you receive an email.
 
iOSUser7 said:
You are talking about push notifications right? The ones that get displayed on the lock screen as soon as you receive an email.
Click to expand...

Oh, not sure. I don't have email notifications displayed on the lock screen. My lock screen would be nothing but an endless sea of mail notifications if that were the case.

The concept of push notification, though, is that the email service (eg. gmail in this case) sends a notification to your device when you get an email. In my case, that's what I observed by way of my unread count moving up appropriately almost instantly. I can't see why, if you had lock-screen notifications turned on, it wouldn't work though, since the phone itself has actually been notified that you received a new mail.
 
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No push notification is a deal breaker for me. I have to have the ability to see an email immediately in case of emergency. With the Mail app, the time it took to come in varied significantly enough as to render it useless to me. I am using Spark, and have been very happy with it.
 
You get push email for your gmail if you have a paid google apps account. Just set it up as exchange active sync pointing to m.google.com
 
Couple months ago I did a workaround. I was able to forward my gmail emails to my iCloud email address. I would get notifications immediately. Kind of a big hassle and messy for me. I use Edison now. Wish there was a clean way to get notifications. Stock app is pretty good
 
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yungskeeme said:
Couple months ago I did a workaround. I was able to forward my gmail emails to my iCloud email address. I would get notifications immediately. Kind of a big hassle and messy for me. I use Edison now. Wish there was a clean way to get notifications. Stock app is pretty good
Click to expand...

I also forwarded to my iCloud email but for outgoing I set it to smtp .gmail. com so people would just see my regular gmail when I send.
 
Yun0 said:
I gave up on stock mail & went to - Edison Mail by Edison Software Inc. https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/email-edison-mail/id922793622?mt=8

Never looked back, full push on everything including Google, uses less space not never ending growing cache like stock mail, push when in low power mode etc..
Click to expand...

i use the same and have been for a good while now. really like the simplicity of it. it does have a "mark as read" option on my apple watch or on my iPhone X. also love the push notifications. never liked the gmail app.

email.jpg
 
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C DM said:
Is one of the potential concerns/downsides when it comes to apps like that which can support push for Gmail is that they basically use/store your credentials in some way on their servers in order to be able to support push (or push-like) delivery of new messages for Gmail, for example?
Click to expand...

With 2-factor authentication turned on, I think it is safe (from certain concerns*). In my experience, there seems to be a combination of credentials plus some sort of profile of the device/application/IP/location. So if some hacker steals the credentials, they shouldn't be able to use it because Google will notice the profile is different and trigger 2-factor authentication. The whole point of 2-factor authentication is to protect against stolen credentials.

I certainly could be wrong. I wish I understood this better.

* I say "from certain concerns" because if your concern is that the company who made the application could use your credentials to look at your email, then yes, that is 100% true of many third party email applications.
 
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