iPhone Apple Mail-push notifications for Gmail?

[kvlq]

I got back to Apple's default Mail app after using Spark for a long time, because in the past few months it ran a lot in the background and I couldn't get rid of that usage.

My only issue with the default mail app is that you cannot get push notifications for emails coming to a gmail account. Saw there are some workarounds for this, to add the gmail account manually and set the IMAP/SNMP etc, but it doesnt work for me. I still have to open the app to see the new emails. Or wait for a good amount of time to get the notification.

Does someone know another method to make them work? Or did anyone ever manage get it to work?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

It’s been like this forever and won’t be fixed given the way Gmail and Mail use push notifications.

 

[kvlq]

I know that its on google side, but I saw on reddit some users that made it work.. interesting. I was curious if someone here also did it, and how.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

I know that its on google side, but I saw on reddit some users that made it work.. interesting. I was curious if someone here also did it, and how.

Highly doubtful as I’ve been trying for years and there’s not that many options to mess with. Only way to get instant email notifications is have your Gmail emails forwarded to your iCloud email.

 

[MRM95]

The sad thing is, it actually used to work in the way back days.

 

[jz0309]

I got back to Apple's default Mail app after using Spark for a long time, because in the past few months it ran a lot in the background and I couldn't get rid of that usage.

My only issue with the default mail app is that you cannot get push notifications for emails coming to a gmail account. Saw there are some workarounds for this, to add the gmail account manually and set the IMAP/SNMP etc, but it doesnt work for me. I still have to open the app to see the new emails. Or wait for a good amount of time to get the notification.

Does someone know another method to make them work? Or did anyone ever manage get it to work?

Not sure if you’ve gotten anywhere with this, I also use gmail and the Apple mail app and what I did is install the Gmail app, enabled notifications but never loaded nor use it other than modify/check settings.
I also disabled notifications for the Apple mail app, so now I get mostly instant notifications and if I deem worthwhile I open the Apple mail app …

 

[cateye]

I know that its on google side

It's not, actually.

Mail.app on iOS and iPadOS does not support IMAP IDLE which would allow for push-style notification of incoming mail, at some cost of battery life (this is how Mail.app on MacOS is able to offer immediate notifications of incoming mail from any IMAP account). The alternative is Apple's push API, but it's private and only works with iCloud-based mail. Third party email providers are not allowed to use it.

Push in Mail.app with GMail used to work because long ago, Gmail supported dual access via either IMAP or MS Exchange protocols. You could set up a GMail account in Mail.app as a Microsoft Exchange account and you'd receive push notifications of incoming email via Exchange's proprietary push mechanisms, which Mail.app does support. But Google eventually sunsetted Exchange access (likely due to licensing costs), then implemented their own reverse-engineered version, then eventually discontinued that as it had a lot of gotchas and never worked particularly well with most of GMail's features.

Programs like Spark, et al. are able to approximate Push email because they use OAUTH to poll your email accounts. When they detect new messages, they use Apple's notifications API to signal to the email client that they should read the accounts using your saved credentials, download the mail information, and inform the end user. As usual, Apple's capricious restrictions on iOS spawn some creative solutions.

jz0309's method—install the official Google GMail app just for its notifications—is probably the easiest way to get push notifications while still using Mail.app as your primary client. You just have to be disciplined about not actually tapping any of those notifications because they will take you to the GMail app, not to Mail.app.

 

[outie2k]

It’s crazy how it’s been so many years since Gmail stopped offering ActiveSync for the free accounts, and the two companies still haven’t came up with a solution to make people lives better. Why do we still have to deal with Fetch mails in 2023/2024? I understand Google has no incentive to make it work, but Apple would like more people to use its Mail.app, right?

 

[VampyricGentleman]

It’s crazy how it’s been so many years since Gmail stopped offering ActiveSync for the free accounts, and the two companies still haven’t came up with a solution to make people lives better. Why do we still have to deal with Fetch mails in 2023/2024? I understand Google has no incentive to make it work, but Apple would like more people to use its Mail.app, right?

Reviving this thread just to advise Google are now retiring ActiveSync for their paid accounts also from 15 June 2024. Additionally on the same day they increased how much a month each account costs by a quarter

 

[dmccloud]

It’s crazy how it’s been so many years since Gmail stopped offering ActiveSync for the free accounts, and the two companies still haven’t came up with a solution to make people lives better. Why do we still have to deal with Fetch mails in 2023/2024? I understand Google has no incentive to make it work, but Apple would like more people to use its Mail.app, right?

It's not as simple as Apple convincing Google to change their business model regarding Gmail. However, a lot of people are using the Mail app regularly for non-Gmail accounts, Microsoft Exchange, etc. Personally, I have an email account connected to my Apple ID and another account tied to my web design side business (via the iCloud+ custom email domain setup) in the Mail app. I use the Gmail app for my Gmail accounts because I want to keep those completely separate from the other email accounts.

 

[OMGWTFBBQ]

Just wanted to echo the disappointment that there is no longer push email option for gmail on ios. Seriously makes me mad how I used to have it and now I don’t. I’d pay a slight fee to make it come back if its licensing issue. Tried spark. prefer apple mail.

 

[anzio]

It's not, actually.

Mail.app on iOS and iPadOS does not support IMAP IDLE which would allow for push-style notification of incoming mail, at some cost of battery life (this is how Mail.app on MacOS is able to offer immediate notifications of incoming mail from any IMAP account). The alternative is Apple's push API, but it's private and only works with iCloud-based mail. Third party email providers are not allowed to use it.

Just a small correction. It does appear that Apple Mail actually does in fact support push notifications for IMAP servers. It queries for a XAPPLEPUSHSERVICE capability on an IMAP server. It will use IMAP in combination with APNS to retrieve the notification to "wake up" and perform a new IMAP fetch.

It does require some involvement in configuration though, since you'll need an APNS certificate. Some third-party mail providers appear to support it, but it's rare. Most have probably determined that it's not worth the effort. Gmail likely wants people using their own app anyway, so I don't foresee them adding support for push notifications on their IMAP service, especially if it hasn't happened by now.

 

[cateye]

Thank you for the correction!

 

[anzio]

Thank you for the correction!

No problem! I only just found out about it because of an email hosting company adding support for push notifications on iOS using Apple Mail (and announcing its availability), so it made me start digging to see how they were accomplishing it! I think it may have been designed primarily for the mail server on OS X Server.

Of course, it's so rarely implemented that it may as well not exist at all

 

[Spank7]

So the problem with no gmail push notification is on google fault ?
So pity seriously ....

 

[anzio]

So the problem with no gmail push notification is on google fault ?

Technically, I guess you could say yes; however, it's likely just a conscious business decision to not add the push notification capability since they already support IMAP IDLE and have their own Gmail app available in the App Store (as @cateye pointed out) which supports push notifications (and I imagine they want to encourage its use).

 

[Spank7]

Technically, I guess you could say yes; however, it's likely just a conscious business decision to not add the push notification capability since they already support IMAP IDLE and have their own Gmail app available in the App Store (as @cateye pointed out) which supports push notifications (and I imagine they want to encourage its use).

So i guess we could only hope that someday they will support it or apple could change something on native mail to support the gmail