Some people reported yesterday that Google was starting to add IMAP capability to groups of Gmail users, a much requested and needed feature as anyone who’s tried to use it on an iPhone or a secondary device will know. IMAP, unlike POP, allows perfect sync across all devices and clients — the folder list, the ‘read’ status of an e-mail, and starred e-mails are all maintained and updated everywhere.
I checked this morning in the Settings of my Google Apps for Custom Domains account, saw the IMAP tab, set it up on the iPhone, and I’ve been sending/receiving e-mails all day in full, real-time, starring and archiving and deleting IMAP glory. For iPhone users, here’s a quick screengrab to help you setup your account:
And as to what’s possible with IMAP, the official Google Blog posting provides a good example:
- read an email in Gmail, then
- move it to the “Starred” folder on my iPhone, then
- archive it by moving it to “All Mail” in Thunderbird, then
- see all of those changes on my Blackberry (or any of the above devices for that matter).
So, e-mail is officially usable on iPhone thanks to Google. All rejoice!
