AquaMail Forum
English - Android => How do I... => Topic started by: amitt on June 14, 2015, 07:45:40 pm
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I'm a new user of Aquamail Pro and very pleased with the app. My question is has the mail notification ever worked with Yahoo Mail? I've searched the internet along with Aquamail's FAQ and forum to find the answer without any clear answer.
I have the Samsung Galaxy S4 which is running Android Lollipop version 5.0.1. I'm thinking that maybe the Aquamail notification (in screen status area) was working with the earlier version Android KitKat 4.4.2 and that's why I haven't seen any discussion regarding a problem?
I've tried both Yahoo server settings Pop & Imap without any luck.
FYI - My Wavecable email account works correctly with mail notifications, only Yahoo has the problem.
I would appreciate any suggestions or if anyone has had success running Lollipop version 5.0.1 with a Yahoo mail account.
Thanks - Alan
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Are you able to see any messages in your @yahoo account at all, in Aqua?
There is a serious problem with Yahoo mail since two days or so, they managed to break Outlook and Thunderbird too.
https://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index?sid=396546162&link=list
It's my understanding (based on affected users' follow-ups) that it's mostly fixed, but maybe not in everyone's accounts yet?
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Yes, there isn't any problem viewing messages even ones that have images which was my main gripe with most email apps I've tried.
The only thing that has had me pulling my hair out (not much more to pull) is finding a app that does both - photos & notifications.
Thanks - Alan
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Alan,
You couldn't find any app which can provide Push for Yahoo and send notifications immediatly about new messages, since Yahoo Mail doesn't support the necessary IMAP IDLE Push protocol.
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You should not have any trouble at all with scheduled mail sync for Yahoo accounts in Aqua.
Now as for push -- they chose to implement it their own way, undocumented (worked out something with Apple) -- and not in the industry standard way, IMAP IDLE, supported by almost every other mail service / server. Sigh.
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Hi Kostya,
Do you mean by saying "I should not have any trouble at all with scheduled mail sync for Yahoo accounts in Aqua", utilizing "Push" for notification or just receiving my new messages?
It looks like Yahoo wants to do their own thing rather than having across the board compatibility for other mail programs.... sounds similar to Apple's way of having their nose up in the air concerning competitive apps.
I did finally find another Android mail app that does work with Yahoo mail, it does notifications and display images with multiple mail accounts. I read they designed their own Push from scratch and is integrated within their app. How they do that is a mystery.
I still would like to stay with using AquaMail as my go to email app for my Android phone if the notification issue is resolved with Yahoo Mail. I've established a long history using Yahoo Mail and don't want to change for my general email usage.
Thanks Again - Alan
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AquaMail is using a scheduled sync in the background with adjustable time periods to sync (5-10-15-...minutes). That may give the impression to the user for a kind of push notifications. But indeed it isn't.
What's interesting on Yahoo's push implementation is that it uses the Oracle PUSH spec (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/testcontent/pushmail-technical-vision-128308.pdf) which the IEEE board refused and did not include in the Lemonade spec (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemonade_Profile).
The Oracle version requires you to set up a separate server to receive the push notifications and then send that notification down to the client. That means your credentials aren't necessarily guaranteed to be safe in the app on your device. It's a really goofy implementation of push that Yahoo chose to go with. Imap IDLE is the approved standard for push on imap. That means the developer of AquaMail has to set up a separate server just to implement push for yahoo which isn't very popular among Android users. I'm sure that will never become a reality. Running a server with the costs associated to run that server and bandwidth just for yahoo push doesn't sound appealing. Hopefully Yahoo gets their act together and implements the IDLE command like every other imap push server.
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Thanks for the very interesting reply about Yahoo using the Oracle PUSH protocol for their mail server's. I wonder what the reasoning was to do that?
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>> It looks like Yahoo wants to do their own thing rather than having across the board compatibility for other mail programs.... sounds similar to Apple's
It's my understanding that Yahoo worked with Apple on push mail for iPhone -- and Steve Jobs hated IMAP IDLE.
Oh, and Apple's iCloud mail uses Oracle's mail servers -- and does support IMAP IDLE.
Interesting connections...
And yet, I know it doesn't help -- so Yahoo has to implement *the* standard (when they're not too busy making it their mail system not work at all).
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I have a solution which can either be used as a temporary or permanent solution to deal with the Yahoo mail notification
issue until they conform to the 'imap IDLE' standard for push on imap .
That is, I'm using the Yahoo mail app for notification and AquaMail to read email, send or reply.
It works for me at this time.
BTW - Steve Jobs hated Flash, but it is still here and there are on-going improvements being made.
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...
BTW - Steve Jobs hated Flash, but it is still here and there are on-going improvements being made.
Apple's Thoughts on Flash
I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.
... more...
https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
...
Conclusions:
Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.
Steve Jobs
April, 2010
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i have yahoo mail work perfect notifications 100% 3 doll for program app contact
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Hi Kostya,
Do you mean by saying "I should not have any trouble at all with scheduled mail sync for Yahoo accounts in Aqua", utilizing "Push" for notification or just receiving my new messages?
It looks like Yahoo wants to do their own thing rather than having across the board compatibility for other mail programs.... sounds similar to Apple's way of having their nose up in the air concerning competitive apps.
I did finally find another Android mail app that does work with Yahoo mail, it does notifications and display images with multiple mail accounts. I read they designed their own Push from scratch and is integrated within their app. How they do that is a mystery.
I still would like to stay with using AquaMail as my go to email app for my Android phone if the notification issue is resolved with Yahoo Mail. I've established a long history using Yahoo Mail and don't want to change for my general email usage.
Thanks Again - Alan
i have yahoo mail work perfect notifications 100% android 3 doll for program app contact me
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The discussion above is specifically about Yahoo's push mail which is different from every other mail service's.
There should be no trouble with the app's default "check mail every 15 minutes" and there is nothing special about Yahoo and notifications.
Now, there is this issue with Yahoo forcing OAUTH2 and blocking access to what they call "less secure apps", but that's something else entirely.
http://www.aqua-mail.com/?p=2986
For any given account, it'll keep working until Yahoo turns off the "allow access to less secure apps" switch in that account, and then there is a way to revert this, and again allow access from AquaMail (and pretty much all other mail apps).
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yahoo mail's android app utilizes push in mail receiving, doesn't it?
how does it do it and why can't aqua implement the same?
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yahoo mail's android app utilizes push in mail receiving, doesn't it?
how does it do it and why can't aqua implement the same?
Because Yahoo Mail app is using its own proprietary protocol for PUSH (not publicly documented), instead of the industry standard one (called "IMAP IDLE") that is used by majority of e-mail servers. So, if they do not disclose how to use it, it is impossible to use it (short of reverse engineering which is a project in its own). I'd say that even if Yahoo published the documentation for the API, as a mail app developer I would think hard before diving into implementing that. Why would you invest time and energy in something so narrow (used only by one provider)? And given the current [dis]course of Yahoo as a business, the future of that protocol is somewhat uncertain (as is the future of the entire Yahoo Mail).
You could read what Kostya wrote about it above in this thread (you've already found the thread, great!), but I am quoting a couple of relevant posts from Kostya below in case you missed them.
You should not have any trouble at all with scheduled mail sync for Yahoo accounts in Aqua.
Now as for push -- they chose to implement it their own way, undocumented (worked out something with Apple) -- and not in the industry standard way, IMAP IDLE, supported by almost every other mail service / server. Sigh.
>> It looks like Yahoo wants to do their own thing rather than having across the board compatibility for other mail programs.... sounds similar to Apple's
It's my understanding that Yahoo worked with Apple on push mail for iPhone -- and Steve Jobs hated IMAP IDLE.
Oh, and Apple's iCloud mail uses Oracle's mail servers -- and does support IMAP IDLE.
Interesting connections...
And yet, I know it doesn't help -- so Yahoo has to implement *the* standard (when they're not too busy making it their mail system not work at all).
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so those of us that have yahoo as their basic email account should use yahoo app and only that,
and I don't think yahoo is gonna fall, so many millions have their emails in yahoo,
someone would buy it eventually
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so which push is working? does gmail work?
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thanks
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so those of us that have yahoo as their basic email account should use yahoo app and only that,
and I don't think yahoo is gonna fall, so many millions have their emails in yahoo,
someone would buy it eventually
If you have Yahoo as your e-mail provider, you have three choices:
1. Use Yahoo mail app (as you suggested), - this is the only option if you require Push notifications.
(The practice shows that very small percentage of all e-mail users REALLY need Push. And if you must have Push (which is typically required by the job-related obligations), you probably should not consider if you should use Yahoo mail for that type of messages. I am not pushing ;) you to make the switch, I am just saying.)
2. Use the app that you like for other features, and use scheduled sync which works just fine with Yahoo.
(Setting the sync frequency to 5 minutes is probably a good choice if you want to be notified about your new messages quickly.)
3. Writing to Yahoo corporate office and complaining that they don't have a standard, well-documented IMAP IDLE protocol implemented in their service.
(If you are not a paid customer, your voice probably has much lower weight. And given the corporate perturbations, I doubt it would be high on their priorities list. But it doesn't cost much to try.)
And of course, there is an obvious option of ditching Yahoo as your main mail provider. But you indicated it was not for you, hence I don't count it.
And I see that Paris Geek just answered your more recent question.
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so those of us that have yahoo as their basic email account should use yahoo app and only that,
and I don't think yahoo is gonna fall, so many millions have their emails in yahoo,
And the dinosaurs were big, there were many of them, and they lasted some 180 million years. And some 66 million years ago, who would have thought that they would go extinct?
someone would buy it eventually
Maybe... And one time Netscape was bought... and split apart, and disappeared.
Where is Netscape Navigator? Millions used it.
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what about gmail then?
do you approve gmail?
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yes, it's neither corporate nor confidential
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I got gmail account for a long time, but I'm considering to making it my primary,
I've already began switching it in forums since yesterday
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strangely though, gmail's native account doesn't seem to have push!!!
(it requests me to have the synchronization set open in order for it to receive emails)
aquamail's push works fine of course for gmail
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it's not the same, since synchronization needs you to have mobile's synchronization open all the time,
which is not required normally,
on the contrary, yahoo's app pushes the mails, irrespectively of what you do with phone's sync options!
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it's not the same, since synchronization needs you to have mobile's synchronization open all the time,
which is not required normally,
on the contrary, yahoo's app pushes the mails, irrespectively of what you do with phone's sync options!
Oh, man!
I think it is good to challenge people especially when they give "canned" responses. But if you are calling someone out on being wrong, it behooves to do your homework first and double check your information/knowledge.
Back to the issue of Push.
First, some terminology has to be defined: Push (in particular notifications for new e-mails) mean that it is the server that initiates the contact (hence the push). This is opposite to the mail client (app) initiating the contact ("synchronization" in terms of Aquamail - either scheduled or manual) -- "Pull".
Push can be implemented via variety of methods. You are right,for the server to contact the phone, you have to have a connection (not synchronization as you wrote) open. For that, there are two possibilities: (1) either the phone must maintain a persistent connection, or (2) the phone can have some sort of a "beacon", opening a connection every so often, and giving the server a windows of opportunities to communicate (via some other protocol), and once the server passes the message that there is new mail, the client can collect that new mail.
Several years ago, "Push" was implemented for IMAP4 protocol (standard) as an extension that is call "IMAP IDLE". It essentially requires the mail client (app) to maintain the connection open all the time.
Gmail own app does not use IMAP for connecting to Gmail server. And, correspondingly, it doesn't use IMAP IDLE for Push. Instead, it uses Google's proprietary protocol. (Google actually uses the so-called "Cloud" that is essentially a "holding" area, a buffer for different types of notifications that are awaiting to be transmitted for the apps that are "subscribed" for those notifications. As far as I understand, those notifications could be either very short notifications about new messages waiting, or maybe even the messages themselves (or their portions). I don't remember and I don't think it matters much for the present discussion.)
Gmail uses its own, specially crafted protocol for the communication between their server and their client (while also allowing other clients connecting to Gmail server via standard IMAP4 protocol, and the Gmail app (client) connecting to other IMAP servers). As a result, - they just use some optimized communication that is essentially a Push. Note, that Gmail app does not have (at least for Gmail accounts, I haven't used it for any other) the setting for the frequency of syncing.
As an aside: since Gmail uses its own, specially crafted protocol for the communication between the server and the client, - and Android is also their own creation, - they take advantage of the efficiency of this method of communication. That results in a somewhat more efficient use of battery (and possibly data) - when you compare it vs. apps that use IMAP IDLE push.
But, on another hand, I've had a few occasions when in Gmail app, the notification about the new message came about 1 day later, after the message arrived. The scheduled notification in Aquamail (even without Push enabled) arrives on average with a 5 or 7.5 minutes delay (I have different sync setting for different accounts).
PS.
BTW, while writing this post, I just quickly googled (to verify and to provide with the links that explain things in more detail), and the result could be seen at the top of the first page.
Here is "from the horse's mouth": https://developers.google.com/gmail/api/guides/push
- the API for PUSH for Gmail servers (which is implemented in Gmail app).
And there are some useful bits of information in this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/37tr55/the_official_gmail_api_finally_gets_push/
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I think that the best configuration for now is having all your emails forwarded to a yahoo account, which is pushed using their app and, as a backup in case their push fails, a check every 15 minutes in aquamail, if one chooses gmail, he could use aqua for push or check every some minutes and I can't figure out a backup solution for that, since I don't know how their app works yet, I uninstalled it right away actually
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Gmail+Aquamail:
1. Push + scheduled sync (every 15-20 minutes)
or
2. Scheduled sync (every 10-15 minutes)
Both are very reliable configurations.
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the first of these options should refer to aqua and the latter on gmail I guess,
cause gmail needs you to turn synchronization on as soon as you start its app,
which is unacceptable!!!
other than that I don't know how else someone would receive mail in their app,
without synchronization on, all in all, I don't think it's a good implementation
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the first of these options should refer to aqua and the latter on gmail I guess,
I apologize for my last post being ambiguous.
I meant: Gmail mail service provider + Aquamail app. - for both options.
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cause gmail needs you to turn synchronization on as soon as you start its app,
which is unacceptable!!!
other than that I don't know how else someone would receive mail in their app,
without synchronization on, all in all, I don't think it's a good implementation
Sorry, but I don't understand at all what you mean by the underlined statements.
But maybe my clarification will resolve your confusion so that those are no longer relevant.
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yes, of course I read another post from you, so you mean that push and check every 15 minutes let's say,
has got you covered, thanks for clarification
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yes, of course I read another post from you, so you mean that push and check every 15 minutes let's say,
has got you covered, thanks for clarification
Hi Patrick,
I recommend to (re)check your 'Push' and 'Sync' settings for your account(s) - I assume your Gmail or Yahoo account is configured as IMAP in AquaMail - as described in one of my recent posts of another thread:
https://www.aqua-mail.com/forum/index.php?topic=5026.msg29454#msg29454