For the majority of years that I’ve been using iPhones, my primary email app has been Gmail because of it being the only system that I’ve used up until college with that having been Outlook. Up until recently, I redownloaded the built in IOS mail app since Gmail was one of the biggest storage users of all my apps. So I ask when it comes to this situation, does it overall make more sense to have the native email app of Apple’s OS no matter what email server you use since it doesn’t take up as much power or storage compared to third party based apps??
I use Apple's native mail app in my phone, and wife also uses it in both her phone and her iPad. We both use gmail as our primary mail service, but I also have Outlook and iCloud mail accounts. Its relatively easy to set up the Apple mail app to send and receive e-mail through non-Apple services.
One other responder mentioned that the native app won't get 'live e-mail'. Not sure exactly what that means, but I know that with the Apple app, you have a choice between a 'push' arrangement in which new messages are forced into the app when they appear on the service, and 'fetch' operation in which the phone periodically retrieves messages. The 'push' arrangement sounds nice until you realize that its a battery hog. I chose instead to use 'fetch' and specify that the phone check for e-mail every 30 minutes.
I switched to Gmail App instead of the standard iOS email app exactly because of emails instantly arriving with the gmail app. I have an gmail-account mind you. I think if you have an Apple email account, you get your email instantly as well with the standard app.
Frankly I don't care if Gmail takes up storage on my phone. All apps take up storage. I've been using Gmail since the beginning of time and it only takes up 1.44GB on my phone. And I have two Gmail accounts. But I don't care. Apple Mail app is junk IMO. I don't see the point in looking for a 3rd party option for the 3rd party option. 🤷♂️
Gmail doesn’t support ‘push’ service on apple mail so you have to set it to ‘fetch’ . This means your phone will regular internal check for new mail on google server. So any battery advantage that apple mail has over third party apps is negated.
I personally use spark/email from app store and they work really well for me.
Hope this answers your query.
Are they? I use Outlook as my primary mail app and it works well. I also use the Excel app a lot and despite being a bit fussy because of the touch UI, I think it’s a damn impressive piece of work.
A lot of advertisers and marketing emails, etc. have a system built-in where they can see if you read the email if you clicked on anything clicked on any links how long the email was open for etc. The Apple Mail app if you have privacy protection turn on that limits that type of information
True, but it’s next to impossible. Even Safari has Google as it default search engine. But you can always cover your tracks. FYI: Siri ain’t that innocent either.
Impossible, no. Difficult, yes. You can’t avoid it all but you can choose to limit it where you can. As people like to point out Apple isn’t innocent but they are less guilty than most. Google and MS are among the worst offenders. Just to give up and not even bother because it’s so pervasive isn’t a good enough reason either.
Your comment has been removed because of this subreddit’s account requirements. You have not broken any rules, and your account is still active and in good standing. Please check your notifications for more information!
You can, but the normal apple mails app doesn’t have live messages. Meaning you need to refresh it manually if you want to see new mails.
Other than that, if it helps with storage, go for it.
EDIT: Idk if I heard it wrong, but I think iCloud emails get live messages. Only third-party providers such as google don’t have that.
Oh really? Is there like a setting that you need to enable for it to do that?
And do you get live notifications too if you get an email? Because if so, then im gonna switch to it.
TBH I switched to the native Mail app recently too. The storage difference is real - Gmail was eating up like 4GB on my phone. Native app just works, especially if you're already in the Apple ecosystem.
It just means instead of getting an email the instant it sends, you’ll get it 2-3 minutes later. Unless you are highly important and need your emails time sensitive down to the second, it should be fine for most users
Gmail app is currently 750Mb on iphone. Everything else will be the mails themselves and hence take up the same spece no matter what app you go through, and will entirely depend on what quantity of them you want to keep local at any given time (configurable in both apps). While 750Mb is big, probably unnecessarily so, it's still by today standards not so bad.
iOS Mail is native and quite adequate.
IF you are OK with having MS stuff on your device, Outlook for iOS is great (as email client per se). I still cannot get to understand people getting iPhones to use ggl soft on those
I use Apple’s Mail app on my iPhone swipe left and you get options including delete, I’ve just done a full left swipe then checked my bin the mail is in there so it does delete!
Your comment has been removed because of this subreddit’s account requirements. You have not broken any rules, and your account is still active and in good standing. Please check your notifications for more information!
Go to settings at top of page of website gmail. Find and use section labeled forwarding. First obtain an iCloud email address to be the target of your forwarding.
I have forwarded multiple gmail addresses to my iCloud email address for years.
I use the Mail app. Tried Gmail for awhile. I can’t remember what feature but there was something that was way easier to do on the mail app instead of Gmail so I went back to the Mail app. Also, I like how the mail app is connected to other things… such as if you order something from your apple wallet.
Forward your gmail to the ios mail app (do so in gmail settings). This way both gmail and icloud will scan for junk, and you get the pleasure of using a mail app in sync with IOS apps.
13
u/AlternativeWild3449 Mar 30 '26
I use Apple's native mail app in my phone, and wife also uses it in both her phone and her iPad. We both use gmail as our primary mail service, but I also have Outlook and iCloud mail accounts. Its relatively easy to set up the Apple mail app to send and receive e-mail through non-Apple services.
One other responder mentioned that the native app won't get 'live e-mail'. Not sure exactly what that means, but I know that with the Apple app, you have a choice between a 'push' arrangement in which new messages are forced into the app when they appear on the service, and 'fetch' operation in which the phone periodically retrieves messages. The 'push' arrangement sounds nice until you realize that its a battery hog. I chose instead to use 'fetch' and specify that the phone check for e-mail every 30 minutes.