Google introduced GMail on mobile phone long ago. But the users accessing Gmail on a phone or through email client using POP may be frustrated. Because any action you take on mobile phone or email client such as reading, sorting or deleting, doesn’t sync with your Gmail account.

For example, If you have read and sorted all your new mail on your phone, But when you log in to your Gmail account using a web browser, your inbox filled with unread messages you already read on your mobile. So, you have to re-read and re-organize the messages. You can solve these problems by using IMAP instead POP.

POP provides one-way communication path. In this method your device (mobile, PDA etc) asks Gmail server for data and get it. That’s it. There is no feedback. Things you do on your device have no effect on the server. So, you will see that same messages marked as unread which you read on your phone.

IMAP provides two-way communication path. So, your devices talk back to servers and sync your changes automatically. When you sign in to your Gmail account in a web browser, actions you’ve taken on your email client or mobile device will also appear in Gmail. This is very helpful for the users who access their Gmail from multiple devices.

Are you ready for IMAP? Follow these steps to setup IMAP.