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Gmail Finally Gets IMAP

Submitted by Edward Kirk on October 23, 2007 - 10:00pm.
in

When it was first introduced, IMAP was big news for iPhone users, but unfortunately Gmail users were left out of the loop. Now it appears that Google has finally come to their senses and are now providing IMAP support for Gmail accounts.

For Gmail users, this means better support for Gmail in Mail.app, Thunderbird and Entourage. More importantly, it also means a much better mail experience with the iPhone.

Gmail was nice enough to include these handy startup instructions for anyone looking to get IMAP going on their iPhone.

Interestingly, the first step is to not choose the Gmail button, but instead use the one marked "Other...". Apparently this is a bug they're still working out.

If you use Gmail and you give this a try, good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[via TUAW]

Gmail Imap

Submitted by *andyk (not verified) on October 23, 2007 - 10:08pm.
And why is this good? It isn't PUSH is it?

Submitted by *anon (not verified) on October 23, 2007 - 10:30pm.
My Gmail account doesn't have IMAP.. Is this supposed to be enabled for all gmail accounts? Mine still only shows POP under settings.

settings?

Submitted by diveman3 (not verified) on October 23, 2007 - 10:44pm.
for some reason, i dont think my gmail account has been updated to be capable of enabling IMAP. anyone having similar problems when they look in settings?

No IMAP in google settings

Submitted by anemic (not verified) on October 24, 2007 - 2:04am.
I don't see the IMAP in the google settings. Do I have to do something special or is this just not implemented on all accounts?

Submitted by Spoon on October 24, 2007 - 3:28am.
It seems that they're rolling it out gradually. Hopefully we'll all get it by the end of this week. I don't have it yet, but i'm excited.

Quote:
Originally Posted by *andyk View Post
And why is this good? It isn't PUSH is it?
Do you even know what IMAP is??! PUSH is great, but IMAP is WORLDS better than POP.

Submitted by emanuel (not verified) on October 24, 2007 - 5:43am.
maybe you have to switch to english language first. I did not have the option in german. after I activated IMAP I was able to switch back to german and it still is active!

I'm really glad about this. it even works with my own gmail hosted domain.

all the folders I have on gmail are on my iphone now and if a message is read or deleted it is synced from iphone to gmail and back

niccceeee

thanks for the message about this feature

Submitted by bwilliams18 on October 24, 2007 - 5:53am.
i have multiple gmail accounts for various reasons and only one which is the oldest one has imap how interesting

samething here

Submitted by samething (not verified) on October 24, 2007 - 8:15am.
Quote:
Originally Posted by anemic View Post
I don't see the IMAP in the google settings. Do I have to do something special or is this just not implemented on all accounts?
i am not sure, but i can confirm that i have 2 gmail accounts and neither one has the option to "enable IMAP".

Just hang on

Submitted by mkreilein (not verified) on October 24, 2007 - 8:24am.
Go to Gmail, click on "What's new" and you'll see this in the IMAP Access area...

Don't fret if you don't see "IMAP Access" yet under the Settings menu. We're rolling it out to everyone over the next few days.

Wonderful!

Submitted by Andrew Barbaccia (not verified) on October 24, 2007 - 8:35am.
This is really great!

For those who don't know - IMAP lets your phone communicate back to the web server messages you read, what folder you place them in, which ones you delete etc. Your gmail inbox will now stay in sync with you iphone, outlook, etc.

It took them long enough but it works great.

Just follow the directions they posted - took 2 minutes to get working.

We should be nice

Submitted by David Chartier (not verified) on October 24, 2007 - 10:43am.
While Gmail's primary userbase arguably consists of a significant number of power users who usually go for features like IMAP, it's still a pretty hard and unparalleled thing to provide. While most services still charge for even POP access, IMAP is a bit tougher to manage—and Google's provided it completely free.

That's a big deal.

No GMail IMAP Access YET!

Submitted by Travis Balone (not verified) on October 24, 2007 - 7:07pm.
Comon, guys, I don't have IMAP yet and I'm about to call Mr. Google and tell him to go eff himself. I have a strong feeling I used to have this IMAP access on my computer and someone hacked into it and turned it back off, probably those jerks from the Tuesday Night Tech Show. They are on Ustream all the time talking to me about dumb technology stories and they are not funny in any way. I also think they are some sort of hackers, because as I said, my Gmail IMAP access is nowhere to be found. POUGE OVER!

Submitted by bwilliams18 on October 24, 2007 - 7:53pm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Travis Balone View Post
Comon, guys, I don't have IMAP yet and I'm about to call Mr. Google and tell him to go eff himself. I have a strong feeling I used to have this IMAP access on my computer and someone hacked into it and turned it back off, probably those jerks from the Tuesday Night Tech Show. They are on Ustream all the time talking to me about dumb technology stories and they are not funny in any way. I also think they are some sort of hackers, because as I said, my Gmail IMAP access is nowhere to be found. POUGE OVER!
do you have any pacience someone just said it would come out this week read b4 u post

Submitted by anemic (not verified) on October 25, 2007 - 5:10pm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by samething View Post
i am not sure, but i can confirm that i have 2 gmail accounts and neither one has the option to "enable IMAP".
Just got IMAP today on gmail. Works great, much better then pop.

Submitted by imagine engine on October 25, 2007 - 8:45pm.
Checked my email settings and found IMAP by default already enabled. It works great on my iPhone and is an even lower cost and competitive solution than RIM Blackberry push email service.