Yes, you are right: I didn't mean that they are the same. I should have written FairEmail ( or K9-Mail). They are the two reliable email client apps I know and use or used. They both can handle account from every (?) provider (not Tutanota and Protonmail ;) ) and they can notice you, when new emails arrive.
malatoi
Thank you for replies, appreciate your input. Going with Tutanota for reasons mentioned here https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/4669-email-providers-with-own-push-notifications/19
Solved for me
Even though it is already solved for SgtSurehand, i am pretty happy with mailbox.org and posteo.de. Both are payed services, but come without advertisement and privacy features. I use them with FairEmail and get notifications for incoming emails, but they work with K9-mail as well.
I really would like to get an answer to my question: Is there a real difference between using push notifications and (in my example) FairEmail together with Posteo. In my experiment
I sent an email from my desktop computer to my email account on my pixel and ~ three seconds later my pixel beeped.
What's the point using push notifications? Is it that faster? Is it more reliable? Is it...?
I am really curious about it.
malatoi What a "push" notification means, is that the SERVER initiates a message to the CLIENT by utilizing an existing connection that was opened some time ago by the CLIENT.
IMAP, the protocol used to receive email, supports a persistent connection that the server will use to push messages to the client. Fairemail, using an IMAP connection to any server, will receive PUSH notifications.
To make that more explicitly clear; you ARE using push notifications.
Thanks for the clarification! I allways thought, that the term "push notifications" is bound to Google or Meta (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram). So, in my understanding now, push notifications technically is a service of a company or project, which works in the background and notices you, when new messages arrive. And the app does not have to be switched on for this. Basically it's neutral and not mandatory harming privacy.
I just remembered, that I use Threema and they offer since severeal month (?) their own push notifications, called Threema Push.
I also use both posteo and mailbox.org with FairEmail and notifications work very well 🌷
Recently I was thinking about the security of FairEmail github account / dev keys tho... In case their systems are compromized, we are screwed. And they are obviously not a big company with large security budgets...
Apart from tutanota, does anyone knows a larger email service that has an app with notifications working without Play Services?
malatoi It does require the receiving application to be running in some manner -- foreground service is the best way to accomplish this, otherwise there is (a) no open connection for the server to send notifications along, and (b) nothing there to receive it.
Fakebook uses g's connection for their messages. g calls their implementation of push message delivery "FCM" for something like firebase cloud messaging. It works the same way as anyone else's implementation. Their software runs on the device, maintains a connection to their server, and delivers messages on behalf of others, while allowing them to collect data on at least some aspects of the data being delivered.
DeletedUser115 Recently I was thinking about the security of FairEmail github account / dev keys tho... In case their systems are compromized, we are screwed.
Install from fdroid and you are protected by it using fdroid signing keys. But note that ALL software installed has the same risk with compromised signing keys.
csis01 Thanks for your reply. I won't trust F-Droid with any critical apps.
True it's the same problem for any app, however email client is a very sensitive application thus I am more concerned about an email client run by a small team vs a random app.
DeletedUser115 That's an unfortunate position. Fdroid is the safest place to find software from unless you audit source and build yourself.
