New IMAP feature on Gmail

I’ve blogged before that Google’s Gmail uses POP3 for its users to download E-Mails from the servers. While it was POP3 it kinda acted as IMAP, except the fact that it didn’t allow you to have folders, remember popular tagging in Gmail?

Well, the news is Gmail is to provide IMAP protocol for its users(Google Apps for your domain too). It’s a great feature to have for those people who are not comfortable using Gmail’s popular webmail interface or any webmail, preferring those to E-Mail clients like Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. Also it’s also creating a way for gadgets and phones like iPhone, BlackBerry or any kind of PDAs out there.

So go ahead and configure your E-Mail client, PDA or phone to synchronize with your Gmail account.

For those who doesn’t know what does IMAP mean read it here.

How do I enable IMAP?

You can retrieve your Gmail messages with a client or device that supports IMAP, like Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail.

To enable IMAP in your Gmail account:

  1. Log in to your Gmail account.
  2. Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page.
  3. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
  4. Select Enable IMAP.
  5. Configure your IMAP client* and click Save Changes.
October 25, 2007 | Filed Under internet 

Comments

4 Responses to “New IMAP feature on Gmail”

  1. kjusupov on October 26th, 2007 1:07 pm

    Below is a comment from one of the claws-mail developers…

    > Just a word to try and prevent a deluge of “Gmail’s IMAP works badly
    > with Claws Mail” posts :)
    >
    > Ricardo and I tested it, and it seems like Google’s IMAP server
    > developers didn’t read the RFC correctly. At least, you won’t be able
    > to select folders containing spaces, like “[Gmail]/All mail”, because
    > of an RFC violation on their part.
    >
    > You will also experience problems with copying, my quick tests showed
    > that it worked a bit like moving (that is, the original mails get
    > removed from the original folder, but it isn’t immediately evident),
    > apart that they don’t appear in the destination folder either.
    >
    > Also, it’s slow as hell. It’s server-side.

  2. Michael on October 29th, 2007 3:43 pm

    Google has read my mind. I was hoping that one of these large email providers will add IMAP functionality. And new Google has. I was actually wanted Hotmail to add it because that is me main email account. But never mind. Now Gmail is the best! At least I think so!

  3. admin on October 29th, 2007 7:20 pm

    Synack,
    I think Google has broken a lot of rules and standards and look where they are now. Without going out of the rules you can’t make sth new and better, IMHO.
    Anyways, just like hard disk, RAM etc getting cheaper, Internet bandwidth is getting better and cheaper. People can watch streaming video, listen to music etc etc. So I think it’s a one step closer.

    Another my guess, they won’t be using full fledged IMAP protocol, I’m sure they will tweak it –> remember the famous Gmail tags?

    Michael,
    you should take a look at google apps for your domain!

  4. Michael on October 30th, 2007 5:58 pm

    I will have a look at it but I’m not that eager to use google apps for my domain. Don’t think it is very worth it.
    And the other thing…Google will definitely implement Google Gears to Gmail.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Categories


Clicky Web Analytics