How to Check Email on Your Mobile Device

How To Check Email on Your Mobile Device

Today we send more email from mobile devices than ever before. As a result, it’s important for us to understand some of the technical jargon that goes with mobile devices, including the various protocol options we have available.

So what is the right protocol for your mobile devices? Here is a brief overview of each of the most common options to help you decide:

  • POP3 (Post Office Protocol)
    POP3 is a method of retrieving email information that dates back to the early 1980s, when computers had extremely low bandwidth access to remote computers. POP3 was designed to simplify the way emails could be downloaded for offline reading.  When you checked your email, it pulled a copy to your local device and then removed the original message from the remote server. Because of this, the messages are stored on your local machine and don’t affect usage quotas.  One major drawback is that it makes it difficult to check from multiple devices at the same time because no one device would see all of the messages, only the device who checked the mailbox first.
  • IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
    IMAP was also first developed in the 80s, but is extremely well-suited to today’s “always-on” Internet world. The general idea is that users are able to read emails like they are “in the cloud” rather than having to use a single email client. Therefore, IMAP allows people to log into a variety of email clients or interfaces and view the same messages, because those messages are kept on remote servers until you delete them. This is a popular option for people who check email on web interfaces, email clients and mobile devices. However, it does come with a limited mailbox size depending on the server plan you have.  It can also be confusing on when messages are actually removed from the remote server.
  • Exchange ActiveSync
    Microsoft’s ActiveSync uses MAPI (Messaging API) technology, a means by which applications and email clients can communicate with Microsoft Exchange servers. It allows easy syncing of not just email, but also calendars, contacts and a variety of other features typically tied into local clients and apps. It also uses a push technology where your mobile device can notify you immediately when a new messages hits your mailbox.

For more information about any of these options, contact our team at IDMI.Net today.