
Gmail push notification no longer works with Mail on new iOS devices - josephby
http://www.tuaw.com/2013/03/26/gmail-push-notification-no-longer-works-with-mail-on-new-ios-dev/
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mike-cardwell
I'm guessing iOS doesn't support the 16 year old and widely supported IMAP
IDLE extension that provides push notifications? Because GMail does:

    
    
      mike@laptop:~$ openssl s_client -quiet -connect imap.gmail.com:993 -crlf
      depth=1 C = US, O = Google Inc, CN = Google Internet Authority
      verify error:num=20:unable to get local issuer certificate
      verify return:0
      * OK Gimap ready for requests from 5.68.43.84 iz11if3450779wic.18
      1 LOGIN ********@googlemail.com ******************
      * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 UNSELECT IDLE NAMESPACE QUOTA ID XLIST CHILDREN X-GM-EXT-1 UIDPLUS COMPRESS=DEFLATE ENABLE MOVE CONDSTORE ESEARCH
      1 OK ********@googlemail.com **** **** authenticated (Success)
      2 EXAMINE INBOX
      * FLAGS (\Answered \Flagged \Draft \Deleted \Seen $Forwarded $label1 $MDNSent JunkRecorded $NotJunk NonJunk $Junk Junk)
      * OK [PERMANENTFLAGS ()] Flags permitted.
      * OK [UIDVALIDITY 596417035] UIDs valid.
      * 44 EXISTS
      * 0 RECENT
      * OK [UIDNEXT 548] Predicted next UID.
      * OK [HIGHESTMODSEQ 25348]
      2 OK [READ-ONLY] INBOX selected. (Success)
      3 IDLE
      + idling
    

I'm pretty sure every desktop IMAP client supports it too. And K-9 Mail on my
Android phone does too.

~~~
rcsorensen
That requires a constant internet connection, which can be hard to come by on
mobile devices.

Edit: Thanks folks. Looks like I was wrong about APN being pulled up over
cellular messaging when there was data to transmit.

~~~
mike-cardwell
Well, seeing as I can only download the emails when I have an Internet
connection, I'm happy to only be notified that there are new emails waiting
when I have an Internet connection too...

~~~
Steko
[1] indicates the battery loss may be significant:

 _if you are using server-side filtering to filter emails into different
folders and you want ‘push notifications’ and instant downloads for all of
those folders, then there needs to be a separate TCP connection for each of
those folders being monitored. On a mobile device, this can cause excessive
battery usage if more than a few folders are being monitored._

[1] [http://emailganizer.goodhumans.net/2012/10/01/activesync-
pus...](http://emailganizer.goodhumans.net/2012/10/01/activesync-push-imap-
idle-apple-push-notifications/)

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untog
Google could only provide push to iOS through Exchange, something they have to
license from Microsoft. So, they're not doing that any more. As far as I can
see, there actually aren't any license-free options available.

But you can use their Gmail app and still get push notifications.

~~~
czr80
Yes, I'm sure the license costs were killing them.

~~~
nincompoop
Wait wait, isn't Google an $80billion company with some of the top engineering
talent on the planet?

Is this a patent issue or is it because no one else has figured out how to
properly replicate that kind of functionality?

</ignorance>

~~~
untog
Google has found out how to do it just fine on Android. But they don't control
iOS. If you want a new system for e-mail pushing on iOS you need to be looking
at Apple for innovation.

------
ComputerGuru
I would be happy to switch from Mail.app to the Gmail iPhone app if someone at
Google would (pretty please) implement an actual Mail.app alternative. I'm
beyond certain that I'm not the only one here that has multiple Gmail-based
email accounts. And they all get emails all the time.

The Gmail app may technically support multiple email accounts, but in reality,
it doesn't. Without a unified inbox view, checking email is a chore and a real
headache.

I also don't think this has much to do with Exchange licensing; the fact of
the matter is, IMAP IDLE has existed for the better part of 16 years, and is
the perfect push solution for email. Mail.app for the iPhone and OS X, along
with countless other IMAP clients, (fully?) support IDLE - Gmail just needs to
step up their game.

~~~
mike-cardwell
We don't need "Gmail apps". We need "IMAP clients"

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relix
This makes me sad. The notifications that the Gmail app provides also show up
for mails that are filtered outside the inbox. For example "junk" mails or
social media notifications also show up even though they never reach my inbox
but are filtered into labels. Another awesome point of the native
notifications is that they disappear if you read the mail somewhere else, for
example on your laptop. This helps prevent cluttering of the lock screen on
iOS.

~~~
ngoldbaum
At least with the new folder based filtering they recently added to GMail, you
can set it so messages apparing in any folder besides the inbox won't count
toward the unread message count. This gets rid of all the non-inbox
notifications when I use the GMail app on my iPhone.

~~~
relix
That's great, thanks for the pro tip!

------
cwalcott
It should be noted that you can still get push notification support if you use
Google's Gmail app on iOS.

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gnus
The Gmail iPhone app has very reliable push functionalities and is way more
extensive than its apple general mail counterpart.

~~~
stevewilber
Push notifications from the GMail app and Mailbox are not the same as what you
get with Mail.app. With Mail.app, mail is downloaded in the background and
immediately available when you launch the app. With the others, you launch the
app and then stare at the screen for 5 - 10 seconds while mail is downloaded.

iOS 7 is adding a feature that will allow downloading data in the background
and hopefully Mailbox and the GMail app will take advantage of that. But in
the meantime: fetch, get Google Apps for $5/mo, or deal with the annoying wait

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davidcollantes
This is an old news. Google announced[1] that a while back.

[1]
[http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=27169...](http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2716936)

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jpalomaki
The logical way to implement these would be to have a single push channel in
the mobile platform for all notifications. Messages send via this channel
could then wake up an application on the mobile device to process the message
and maybe perform some other actions. In order to save battery the incoming
messages could be delayed a bit, grouped together and delivered in batch.

The push channel we already have on the platforms but I guess at least iOS and
Windows Phone limit how it can be used for this kind of purposes.

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icesoldier
To me the article treads frightfully close to conflating "push email" (being
notified immediately when a message hits the inbox instead of polling at
regular intervals) and "push notifications" (the medium of the actual
notification). Thankfully it looks like the comment section here is able to
tell them apart, but calling Exchange ActiveSync "push notifications" seems
like either ignorance or pageview fishing.

------
perishabledave
Are there any alternative mail services that provide push notifications?

I've tried switching over to the Gmail app for a week and found it to be quite
buggy. Badge counts would not be updated properly, emails would sometimes not
load when you went into the detail view, etc. If it weren't for the clunkyness
I wouldn't mind using it.

~~~
randall
Mailbox.

[http://www.mailboxapp.com](http://www.mailboxapp.com)

~~~
eknkc
I liked Mailbox but for some reason, I think it drains my battery, much more
than the Gmail app from Google..

I know it does not make sense that it's at background, not working and using
the same push notification service as Gmail app.

Is there any logical explanation? Or is it just psychological?

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wc-
Does this affect Mailbox users? I've only started using mailbox but I love it
so far, and it let's me combine 2 gmail accounts into one app (which I think
you can't do in the iOS gmail app?).

~~~
Terretta
You can connect a dozen Gmail accounts in the native iOS Mail app if you like,
with combined Inbox view or separate Inbox view, whichever you prefer.

~~~
wc-
From reading the other comments on here it seems like that option is broken
because push doesn't work correctly with the iOS mail app? I'm just wondering
if Mailbox's push works correctly, like the gmail app's push.

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timharding
Why on Earth would you want to be notified about email?

Letting other people choose when you can be interrupted sounds awful.

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fideloper
Anyone know if this also affects syncing Calendars and Contacts?

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freshfunk
Great so now we're forced to use the Gmail app?

~~~
carlosdp
Or Mailbox, I've grown fond of it recently.

