Gmail not allowing push notifications on iPhone Mail app, should've been illegal

Y	Hacker News new \| ask \| show \| jobs

2 points by ThoAppelsin 2684 days ago

How is it still possible for Google to disallow iPhone's Mail app from receiving push notifications? I am not asking how it is possible technically, but asking how is it possible legally.

Isn't this practice against some of the antithrust laws? How is it "enough" different from what Microsoft had been doing?

I have just got an old iPhone from a relative for my convenience, and blown away. This is not a new thing. Google, somehow, have been getting away with this practice for many years now. To me it seems as extremely foul, and I just cannot understand, how?

1 comments

smt88 2684 days ago

EDIT: I was wrong. Gmail supports IMAP[1], so this is entirely Apple's fault if they're using POP instead of IMAP for accessing Gmail.

iPhone Mail uses POP, an open standard for email, to connect to Gmail. POP doesn't support push notifications. All POP clients (Gmail itself, Outlook, etc.) must use polling to find new emails.

You could blame Gmail for discontinuing IMAP support, or you could blame Apple for refusing to integrate with Gmail using their API (which supports push and is faster than POP).

Either way, this is a natural consequence of competition. Neither company wants it to be easy for you to use the other one's product.

1. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229?hl=en

link

ThoAppelsin 2684 days ago

I am clearly blaming Gmail for discontinuing IMAP support, which seems to me clearly as a foul practice of abusing dominance over the market via introduction of non-standard ways, while also halting support for the standards. They would perish if they were to do this as a small company, and make benefit out of it by "pushing" their products as a bundle, just because a sizeable amount of people are dependent on their services.

link

opless 2683 days ago

When did this happen?

I have things still happily using IMAP, in fact gmail on my iPhone is still showing IMAP-like folders, further more the gmail help still shows the IMAP configuration procedure[1].

[1]. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229?hl=en

link

smt88 2683 days ago

Sorry, you are absolutely right. Gmail supports IMAP as a server.

Email discontinued support for importing emails from IMAP sources in Gmail itself. That's what I was thinking of.

link

smt88 2683 days ago

Sorry, turns out it's 100% Apple's fault.

Why not use a third-party mail client?

link