Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Gmail
Coming up a bit later in this topic is an entire chapter called
Use Gmail with Mail
, which dis-
cusses in detail how Gmail works (and doesn't) with Mail in Mavericks (and, to a lesser ex-
tent, iOS 7). For now, since we're discussing protocols, I want to point out that Mail can talk
to Gmail using either POP or IMAP, but:
• IMAP is the default.
• Gmail's implementation of IMAP is
highly
nonstandard.
• Mail in Mavericks handles Gmail's “flavor” of IMAP differently than earlier ver-
sions of Mail did—and that's not always a good thing.
• On an iOS device, there are two ways to set up Gmail as an IMAP account—the
default method (selecting Google as the account type) and manually setting up
the account (selecting the Other option). The two options result in somewhat dif-
ferent behaviors (detailed in
Use Gmail with Mail
).
No matter how you slice it, the experience of using Gmail in Mail won't be exactly like using
a conventional IMAP server, nor will it reflect what you might expect if you're used to using
Gmail in a Web browser. It's a weird and potentially frustrating hybrid of the two, and while
some people don't mind it at all, others find it so annoying that they stop using either Mail or
Gmail.
More details to come, but…consider yourself forewarned.
AOL, Yahoo, and Outlook.com
When you set up a new email account on your Mac or iOS device, you'll notice several
predefined options beyond those mentioned in this chapter—including AOL, Yahoo,
and (on iOS only) Outlook.com. These account types don't represent different proto-
cols, as all these services support IMAP (although Outlook.com uses Exchange Act-
iveSync by default under iOS). Similarly, iCloud uses IMAP; and while Gmail supports
both POP and IMAP, if you choose the Google option, Mail uses IMAP by default.
So why does Apple bother listing all these providers separately instead of simply show-
ing POP, IMAP, and Exchange as options? It's all for ease of configuration. Mail already
knows these providers' IMAP and SMTP server addresses, as well as several other
configuration details, and this information enables you to set up an account with one
of these services by providing only your email address and password (and, in some
cases, your name).
