Gmail Push frequency question, not getting email immediately

jetspeedz · May 4, 2015

I'm a little baffled here, I was under the impression Gmail on android is push email. I come from the blackberry world where emails are almost instant. I have checked the account setting and Sync is turned on. I sent myself a test email and it showed up on my desktop instantly. On the new S6 edge with gmail app open in the background it did nothing until I manually Synced the phone than it showed up.

Is there a setting or something i can change to make sure it is pushed from google servers immediately?

thanks

Hadron · May 4, 2015

It should indeed be push email: I just tested by sending a mail to my phone, and it had arrived within a few seconds of my pressing the send button.

Now I don't use the GMail app (don't even have it installed). I'm currently using Aquamail, but have also used K9 & Kaiten, and on all 3 GMail has acted as push mail. But I'm sure that the GMail app is also supposed to be push too - would be very strange for it not to be.

If you opened it on the desktop before it reached the phone it might not notify you if it was already classified as "read" before being delivered. That's all I can think of.

fdbryant3 · May 4, 2015

It is instantaneous. I just sent myself an email from an outside address. Once with the app running, once without. In both cases it showed up before I could even pick my phone sitting right beside me.

jetspeedz · May 4, 2015

Hi guys, it is push but since it is using idle IMAP than the phone is sending google servers a message notifying it is still on the network so the server pushes new emails to the phone. My question is where can the frequency of these pings be set or how often does it do it.

When i do send emails it is not instant, sometimes it takes minutes and if i sync manually it shows right now. Not what i expected coming from a blackberry where it is instant push.

fdbryant3 · May 4, 2015

Don't know what to tell you. Like I said - in my tests, my emails arrived before I could pick up the phone (and I am talking click send then start reaching for the phone). If I had to guess I would think it may be some sort of latency caused by your network connection - but I'm not sure how, still might be worth testing on Wifi, different locations.

Regardless, I don't think there is any way to adjust the sync timings. You might try clearing the data for the Gmail app (and I am assuming you are using the Google GMail app and not the email client from Samsung set up to use Gmail), uninstall/reinstall Gmail, and remove and re-add your Google Account.

jetspeedz · May 4, 2015

correct, using the actual gmail app. it is consistent in what im seeing. the service is good this is all on the ell network, not doing any wifi tests but i have full bars here. ill do some more testing

fdbryant3 · May 4, 2015

jetspeedz said:
correct, using the actual gmail app. it is consistent in what im seeing. the service is good this is all on the ell network, not doing any wifi tests but i have full bars here. ill do some more testing

I'm thinking it may be a problem between Google and your network provider, so the quality of the isn't necessarily relevant. Which is why I recommend try testing it on different internet path like a Wifi connection, ideally a home network (particularly if you can get someone to test with and compare to).

jetspeedz · May 4, 2015

Gotch ya, I did some testing with wifi and it is about the same when it comes to reliability and repeatability. I sent the first email and got a notification right away, but subsequent emails 30 seconds later, no gmail notification

jetspeedz · May 4, 2015

I don't assume having the actual gmail app/client open or closed makes any difference since the phone itself is sending the request to google/gmail servers for being on the network

fdbryant3 · May 4, 2015

No it doesn't appear too. Is the email there when you open the app (ie are you defining this as a manual sync)? Have you tried sending an email with the app open and seen what happens?

It sounds like it might not be triggering the notification. You might try reading this https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1075549?hl=en. Apparently Google can be selective on which email it will notify for.

Crashdamage · May 4, 2015

Gmail service is usually pretty quick, but sometimes, apparently randomly and for no particular reason I'm aware of, mail will take longer, maybe as much as a minute or two, to make it's way around.

Try another email client. I've never been a fan of the stock Gmail app. There's plenty of good ones to choose from. Maildroid, K-9, Type Mail, My Mail, etc etc.

AquaMail is my favorite. It has comprehensive configuration options and a lot of little tricks to make handling email quick and easy. Very fast, rock-stable, and has excellent support via built-in help, a user forum monitored by the developer or by email.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kman.AquaMail

jetspeedz · May 5, 2015

fdbryant3 said:
No it doesn't appear too. Is the email there when you open the app (ie are you defining this as a manual sync)? Have you tried sending an email with the app open and seen what happens?

It sounds like it might not be triggering the notification. You might try reading this https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1075549?hl=en. Apparently Google can be selective on which email it will notify for.

I have the notifications set to always go off for every message, the notification issue is probably just the way gmail handles incoming messages. I did send with the app open and close, it is very random sometimes it is instant other times it takes a few minutes.

jetspeedz · May 5, 2015

Crashdamage said:
Gmail service is usually pretty quick, but sometimes, apparently randomly and for no particular reason I'm aware of, mail will take longer, maybe as much as a minute or two, to make it's way around.

Try another email client. I've never been a fan of the stock Gmail app. There's plenty of good ones to choose from. Maildroid, K-9, Type Mail, My Mail, etc etc.

AquaMail is my favorite. It has comprehensive configuration options and a lot of little tricks to make handling email quick and easy. Very fast, rock-stable, and has excellent support via built-in help, a user forum monitored by the developer or by email.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kman.AquaMail

I will look into the other clients, it sure does appear to be google sync issue but it could also be a combination of the app as well.

thanks

codesplice · May 5, 2015

For whatever it's worth, I'm pretty sure that the Gmail app is using the Google Cloud Messaging platform to push mail to the phone rather than the traditional IMAP IDLE.

That may be different if you use a third-party app like K9 or AquaMail though.

jetspeedz · May 5, 2015

interesting information, thanks for that

Crashdamage · May 5, 2015

codesplice said:
For whatever it's worth, I'm pretty sure that the Gmail app is using the Google Cloud Messaging platform to push mail to the phone rather than the traditional IMAP IDLE.

That may be different if you use a third-party app like K9 or AquaMail though.

I believe you are correct, sir.

jetspeedz · May 5, 2015

I need to do some more research with regards to GCM vs imap idle but you are correct.

"Android's built-in Gmail client uses Google Cloud Messaging to push email for Gmail accounts set up to sync with the phone. Android also supports Microsoft Exchange accounts natively through its default mail application. Emails arriving into the Microsoft Exchange inbox are instantly pushed to the device. Calendar events sync both ways between exchange and the device.

Yahoo Mail is not pushed to an Android device, as Android is still[when?] lacking in IMAP IDLE; see below. An alternative to lack of native support for Yahoo Mail is to install the free Yahoo Mail app, which provides instant push email. Numerous Yahoo users have complained that push does not function reliably; Yahoo has attributed this to server issues rather than the Smartphone app.

In 2010 Hotmail, and its replacement, Outlook.com, have been made push configurable for Android smartphones through the default mail application.[5]

K-9 Mail, a third-party open source application for Android, provides IMAP IDLE support.[6]"

jetspeedz · May 5, 2015

The question here is how is GCM different than imap idle, the implementation is slightly different, the main difference is gcm's ability to push to 3rd party apps using this feature and really for google's benefit of updating its own apps. Not info info on queuing and sync but ill keep looking.

Good info here
gcm- https://developer.android.com/google/gcm/gcm.html
imap idle - http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2177

Stuart Werner · Nov 18, 2019

My phone started doing this after one of the past updates. Sync is on, I only log in on my phone for this gmail account and for more than a month I dont get updates until I open my gmail app myself.

Gmail Push frequency question, not getting email immediately

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