I’ve been having issues with my phone lately, as I am not able to connect my mail account. After googling the issue, it says to try switching servers between the three. What is the difference and what should I use for my mobile phone?
In: Technology
These are simply different protocols. Think of them as different languages your phone can speak to an email server in. Different servers may speak one or more of them. Since there’s a different code base to send the communications back and forth in each (to an extent, the core data is the same, but they’ll run through different translators) it’s possible to introduce an error in one, but not in other languages. Like knowing the exact right word for something in english but not in spanish.
Now we get into your specifics, the differences get a bit technical but roughly:
SMTP is all about sending messages, you’re sending a message to a server and saying hey please deliver this here. Short version it’s like packaging up a letter and putting it in your mailbox. The post office (server) will then sort out how to get it to the local post office for your recipient.
IMAP and POP3 are all about receiving messages, basically how do you check your mail.
With IMAP you request copies of all the messages addressed to you. It’s as if the post office didn’t give you your actual letter, it scanned the letter and printed a copy for you. You could go into any branch and request that printout. This makes it easy to sync email across multiple devices and makes it easy to recover lost messages since mail servers usually live on heavily redundant hardware.
POP3 doesn’t get a copy, you get the original. Once you pick it up it’s gone from the server, so that’s more like how letters actually work. Once you pick it up the post office doesn’t have it any more, you only have your local copy.
IMAP is generally preferred since you can always load up your email on a new device and get everything from the server. You also get it on ALL devices connected to that account, instead of just the first one to check the box. It gets a bit more complicated than that, since the software making a POP3 request could then archive the message and make it available in multiple places instead of relying on the mail server to do it or take other actions. Some services might also push notifications out to the device to prompt it to make an IMAP or POP3 request instead of waiting for it to do it on its own. Mobile OSs are more friendly to those push requests, which is why you’ll often see emails come in a minute or two faster on a phone than on a PC based client sitting right next to it.
That last bit is why it gets hard to make a recommendation without knowing what platforms you’re using but generally SMTP and IMAP are the defaults, but you could try switching to POP3 if you’re having a problem because that problem might not exist on the POP 3 side of things.
Pop3 is a protocol for asking a mail server to send you any mail you have not downloaded before from your mailbox on the server to your local mail client.
SMTP is a protocol for asking a mail server to send a message for you.
IMAP is a protocol for asking a server to send you the folder structure and messages in your mailbox, and or to update the folder structure or messages in your mailbox as instructed. (Similar to pop3, but more fully featured)
TL;dr IMAP and pop3 are alternative ways of managing your mailbox, the former robust and fully featured, the latter simple. SMTP is how you send email.
Latest Answers