What is IMAP and Should I Use It? Your Questions Answered

If you can remember the last time you had to set up an email account, you may recall being asked to choose between POP or IMAP. 

And if you’re like most people, you had no idea what a POP or an IMAP was, much less why you would prefer one to the other.

POP vs. IMAP? Is one better? Will I screw something up if I choose the wrong one? Or does it not really matter?

It’s about how your email works

When you’re in a hurry to move on and you’re not given enough information, it can be tempting to just pick an option at random, but in this case that’s not a great plan. 

Your choice between POP and IMAP will have a major impact on your experience of sending, receiving, searching, and otherwise using email messages. 

POP (Post Office Protocol) used to be the most popular type of email protocol, as it was once the most advanced and secure way to send information online. However, IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is the go-to choice for most people these days. 

IMAP is faster and more flexible than POP, and it does a better job of meeting the needs of most people who are accessing their email from home, work, school, and on the road. 

When you learn more about IMAP, how it works, how it compares to POP, and why it is the most popular email protocol available, you can make a more educated decision about which option is best for you.

Are POP and IMAP Interchangeable?

If you think that IMAP and POP are interchangeable, think again. 

POP works by contacting your email server and downloading all your new messages. Once they are downloaded, they disappear from the server. If you decide to check your email from a different device, the messages that have been downloaded previously will not be available to you.

POP works fine for those who generally only check their email messages from a single device; those who travel or need to access their email from various devices are much better off using an IMAP-based email service. 

What is IMAP?

An email protocol is the method that two computers use to communicate with one another and transfer information between them. One is the sender and one is the receiver. IMAP is one of three commonly used email protocols. The other two are SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and POP. 

Between the two devices is the mail server. The email protocol determines how the server stores and deletes messages. It also has a direct impact on the user’s email experience.

The server in an IMAP system stores your emails, even after they have been delivered. When you open a message received through IMAP, your device doesn’t download or store that email. Instead, you read it off the server. 

This makes it possible to check your email from several different devices without missing a thing. IMAP allows you to access your email messages from wherever you are. Much of the time, email is accessed via the internet, and IMAP is the best method for making that happen.

Advantages of IMAP

There are several advantages to using IMAP instead of POP.

First of all, IMAP allows you to access, organize, read, and sort your email messages without having to download them first. This creates a faster email experience, as well as a more flexible one. 

You don’t have to worry about which device you are using, because your email will always be synced to the server.

Additionally: 

• When checking email from your smartphone without wifi, you’ll use less data because you don’t have anything set to auto-download. Choose when you want to download attachments. 
• The server keeps a record of all of the messages that you have sent, allowing you access to sent messages from anywhere. Because of this, you can use as many devices 
• Messages are only downloaded when you click on them. As a result, you do not have to wait for all of your new messages to download from the server before you can read them. This is another contributing factor to the speed of IMAP. IMAP is fast and efficient. Sometimes accessing information just a few seconds faster makes a big difference!
• IMAP can be set up so that you can still access your already-received email when you are offline. 

It’s pretty clear from these many advantages that IMAP offers what most users are looking for when it comes to email, that is, speed and accessibility. IMAP has replaced POP and other email protocols because it is a much better match for how most people use email today. 

Disadvantages of IMAP

There are very few disadvantages to IMAP, but it’s worth knowing what they are. 

You need a connection.

First, you have to have access to the internet to read, reply to, and search your emails. If you don’t have an internet connection, you won’t be able to search through your email history, receive, or send any emails until you have gotten internet access.

Not being able to search through your previously received emails when you’re offline can be a pretty big inconvenience. 

In the unfortunate event of an internet outage, wifi malfunction, or even server failure, an IMAP user won’t have access to their sent, received, or drafted emails until access is restored. 

You need more storage space on your server.

Next, you will need more server space than with a POP protocol. That’s because the server stores everything. If you only have access to a small amount of server space, you could find yourself needing to delete emails from the server to make room for more. 

The simplest solution to this drawback is to make sure that you choose an email provider that gives you sufficient server storage space. 

What is POP? 

POP, which is also called POP3, is still commonly used, although it has lost popularity over time because of its limitations when compared to IMAP. 

POP3 is limited to one-way incoming mail. Received messages are downloaded and copied from an email service to one specific local computer. After the message has been received and downloaded, the original is deleted from the server. 

Advantages of POP

There are really only two advantages to using POP for your email protocol. 

First, you can read already-received emails on your computer or device without an internet connection. If you need to access your inbox despite inconsistent internet access, POP allows you to do so. 

Second, you won’t use nearly as much server space, because the emails are automatically deleted from the server after they have been delivered to the device. It may be inconvenient to know that your email is only stored on one physical device, but you do end up saving on server space.

If you’ve used a Microsoft Outlook account that has been set up to use POP, you may have already experienced the benefit of email being saved on the device, regardless of connection. 

An Outlook user can search through messages that are saved to the device and draft new messages. Once a connection is established, the saved drafts will be sent automatically.

Drawbacks of POP

There are several drawbacks to POP. 

These include: 

• Emails are not backed up on the server. If your device breaks down or dies, you will lose access to all previously downloaded emails. There is no way to retrieve emails that have been deleted from the server.
• Instantaneous push notifications don’t exist for POP systems. You can, however, set up the email system to periodically check the server for new messages.
• POP systems cannot mark a message as “read” on more than one device. If you download emails to a new device, they will all show up like new, unread messages.
• You won’t have the benefit of automatically organizing emails into folders and files. If you want to organize the emails you receive, you will need to do so manually. This is time-consuming and labor-intensive. 
• You can’t send messages from more than one device. 

POP3 was definitely an important step in email protocol history! For most internet users, though, it is a method that is no longer aligned with how they prefer to access their email. 

Long gone are the days of people accessing one email address on one device at the office every day. Today, people want to be able to quickly access their email from their smartphone, work computer, and home laptop, sometimes all on the same day. 

POP just doesn’t allow for that kind of flexible email access. 

What is TCP?

If you’ve spent some time looking into POP vs. IMAP, you may have encountered some information about TCP and HTTP, too. 

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is part of a combination of systems designed to transmit information from one point to another predetermined point.

Every application that sends information over the internet uses TCP. The application sends information through the TCP, which breaks the data into much smaller packets, passes them through four “layers,” transmits them through a specific port, and then passes them through the four layers in reverse before re-assembling them for delivery.

IMAP is one of the ports that TCP uses to transmit information. 

What is HTTP?

“HTTP” is one of those things that you might have noticed in your browser’s address bar a million times, but have never thought about much. It looks familiar, but what does it mean?

To understand HTTP and its relationship to TCP, you need to know about ports. 

Ports are digital locations where information is processed on its way to its final destination. TCP ports standardize communication between unique devices. Think of a port as a way of organizing information so that it can be interpreted quickly and efficiently. 

The word “port” actually provides a great analogy. When you ship a package internationally, from one location to another, it travels through a port and gets re-routed. TCP ports are the same concept. They receive “packages” and send that information through the right port to get it to the right destination. 

Each port has an assigned number.

HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Its assigned port number is 80, and the main job of port 80 is to form a connection between internet browsers and websites. 

Attaching “HTTP” as the header for information transmitted via a website allows the receiving device to recognize what kind of information has been transmitted and how to correctly display and store it. 

Additional TCP ports include SMTP (used for email), FTP (used to transfer secure files), HTTPS (used to access web pages that need additional security), and IMAP. 

So, Should You Use IMAP?

Chances are, you’ll start another email account some day. Maybe it will be for a new job, a business, or just a personal account, but regardless of the reason, you’ll be asked some questions about settings and preferences.

Maybe you’ll even end up weighing the pros and cons of different email providers before making a decision. Should you go with POP or IMAP?

While POP has its uses, IMAP is widely considered to be faster, more user-friendly, and more compatible with most people’s email habits. Choosing IMAP over POP should have a positive impact on your day-to-day email experience.