Google’s Gmail has provided push notification to iOS users through Mail.app for years, but an announced change has taken effect that will leave users with new devices without push notification in the iPhone’s native mail app.
Google announced in December that the Microsoft Exchange support offered with Google Sync would be removed, and the company ended that support on January 30, 2013. For those who are using the Gmail push notification feature on existing hardware, there’s no cause for concern as Google has grandfathered in your accounts. However, when you get a new iOS device through an upgrade or replacement, you’ll find that you can no longer receive instant push notifications for Gmail accounts.
According to a post on Apple Insider, these changes went unnoticed by most people, with a number of new threads popping up on the Apple Support Communities regarding push notification issues and even Apple Genius representatives expressing bewilderment with the issue.
Gmail users using the iOS Mail app now need to set new devices to fetch their mail on a timed basis (screenshot at right), grab new mail by manually launching the app and refreshing, or begin using another app to continue receiving push notifications. Google’s free Gmail app provides push notifications of new emails, as does the highly prized Mailbox app. For those who want to continue using Mail.app, third-party notification service Boxcar can send push notifications separately.
Google also provides Exchange support with push notification to Google Apps customers, starting at a monthly cost of US$5 per user.
Gmail push notification no longer works with Mail on new iOS devices originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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