Gmail or iCloud Mail?

[dmk1974]

I've been a long-time Gmail user and am thinking about switching over to iCloud mail just for push to my iPhone and iPad as well as to have a consistent mail interface. I have been pretty happy with Gmail for years though. Which do you all prefer and use as your primary mail service? Thanks!

 

[MacManTexas56]

I've been a long-time Gmail user and am thinking about switching over to iCloud mail just for push to my iPhone and iPad as well as to have a consistent mail interface. I have been pretty happy with Gmail for years though. Which do you all prefer and use as your primary mail service? Thanks!

I've used gmail since 2004 when it was first available. I've also had me.com email as well, but I would always forward to to gmail. Then gmail took away ability to push to new iPads and iPhone and forced u into using their app if u want push. That and the privacy thing made me finally switch over completely.

 

[Rigby]

After adding IMAP support (needed for use with OS X Mail or other non-Outlook email clients), Outlook.com is now also a viable alternative in my opinion. It has full push support through Exchange Active Sync.

 

[Rian Gray]

I made my iCloud account to forward all my emails to Gmail account. I think gmail is a lot more customizable compared to iCloud, suits for my work.

 

[ugahairydawgs]

Everyones needs are different.

For me personally.....I use iCloud. My phone, tablet and computer are all from Apple and my email needs are not very robust. So, for me, iCloud works perfectly. If I were someone that needed some robust filtering and the ability to apply multiple tags to messages I could see the draw of Gmail.

So between my needs on that front and my general unease with how Google conducts their business....easy decision.

 

[dmk1974]

I mainly want to switch because I'd prefer to have all of my contacts sync via iCloud (all the fields and so on are then consistent across devices). But without the e-mail portion too, it doesn't make sense because I use webmail interface (Gmail or iCloud) from my work computer.

On my home computer, I would prefer to have my Mac Mail set so when I send an e-mail, it comes from my custom email name (different domain suffix). I cannot figure it out with iCloud. Using Gmail, it's not a problem. It's just an e-mail forward address and I can direct mails that come to it to go to either or both Gmail and/or iCloud mail. But I'd prefer that when I send an e-mail, those on the other end see the custom address as well.

Here's the help I followed:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4864

 

[ugahairydawgs]

I mainly want to switch because I'd prefer to have all of my contacts sync via iCloud (all the fields and so on are then consistent across devices). But without the e-mail portion too, it doesn't make sense because I use webmail interface (Gmail or iCloud) from my work computer.

On my home computer, I would prefer to have my Mac Mail set so when I send an e-mail, it comes from my custom email name (different domain suffix). I cannot figure it out with iCloud. Using Gmail, it's not a problem. It's just an e-mail forward address and I can direct mails that come to it to go to either or both Gmail and/or iCloud mail. But I'd prefer that when I send an e-mail, those on the other end see the custom address as well.

Here's the help I followed:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4864

If you are using Mac Mail you should be able to go into the account preferences and change the outgoing server for your custom domain's email. iCloud doesn't handle outside domains natively as of now.

 

[dmk1974]

If you are using Mac Mail you should be able to go into the account preferences and change the outgoing server for your custom domain's email. iCloud doesn't handle outside domains natively as of now.

Ah, so I can just select Gmail for my outgoing mail server and it will still show in my sent folder on my iCloud acct? I have to try this.

 

[Unhyper]

Primarily Google, but only because I can use my own domain with Google Apps. That is literally the only reason; I hate the Gmail tag system and I'm disenchanted with the way Google keeps shutting services down (Google Reader for example). I also feel like the discontinuation of ActiveSync support was a big middle finger towards me. Google's IMAP is just ineffective and slow in comparison to Exchange or whatever iCloud uses.

I wish iCloud offered competitive business-class features and functionality, but Apple hasn't really bothered to deliver the service's promises. So, for the time being, Google it is.

 

[AzureCloud]

Still using Gmail here after having switched away from MobileMe right before the iCloud transition. I ran into some serious deal breakers with MobileMe Mail, notably spam filtering and security-related issues, and I'm rather certain that iCloud has not actually made any improvements since the rebadge from MobileMe. Gmail just works better for me, despite my simple needs when it comes to email.

 

[Boyd01]

Just switched to iCloud a few weeks ago myself and have been very pleased. I have two other e-mail accounts and they are now forwarded to iCloud. So everything arrives on my phone using push now. Having contacts and calendar in the cloud also works well for me.

Very nice for a free service and I am only using about 150MB out of my free 5gb storage allotment.

 

[dmk1974]

Icloud mail has been pretty decent, but I think overall I like gmail better. On my iPhone though, I like the native Mail app better than the gmail app, but wih the native app it's only fetch mail. Also, for contacts I like having that on icloud better. Still on the fence I guess.

 

[dmk1974]

Well, after playing around with iCloud mail, I decided to set it up back to using Gmail as my primary. No push to the native iPhone mail app, but I have it notifying me instantly via the Gmail app and then go to the native app for reading and sending the emails.

 

[Primejimbo]

Then gmail took away ability to push to new iPads and iPhone and forced u into using their app if u want push. That and the privacy thing made me finally switch over completely.

Same reasons for me for switching. My issues is if I ever went to Windows or something, my iCloud contacts won't work. I hope they do something someday abut that but I doubt it.

 

[MacManTexas56]

Well, after playing around with iCloud mail, I decided to set it up back to using Gmail as my primary. No push to the native iPhone mail app, but I have it notifying me instantly via the Gmail app and then go to the native app for reading and sending the emails.

do you do anything big with the calendar like inviting people to an event etc? if so, that can't be done with gmail anymore on iOS

 

[caesarp]

Ah, so I can just select Gmail for my outgoing mail server and it will still show in my sent folder on my iCloud acct? I have to try this.

Why not use outlook.com for email? (formerly hotmail).

I do that. It can be set up as exchange email (and now is built into ios 7 as an option under mail-setup for easy setup).

So push email works great with outlook.

 

[dmk1974]

do you do anything big with the calendar like inviting people to an event etc? if so, that can't be done with gmail anymore on iOS

I actually only moved back to Google for Gmail and Contacts, but kept the calendar, reminders, notes with iCloud. I like the iCloud calendars and sharing options better.

 

[blhoward2]

I actually only moved back to Google for Gmail and Contacts, but kept the calendar, reminders, notes with iCloud. I like the iCloud calendars and sharing options better.

My problem with the iCloud calendar is...at work they won't install the plugin for the browser so the iCloud website runs slow as hell.

 

[MacManTexas56]

I actually only moved back to Google for Gmail and Contacts, but kept the calendar, reminders, notes with iCloud. I like the iCloud calendars and sharing options better.

cool man. if for some reason you like to use the iCloud email name over your gmail one....you can set it to send as that in gmail and it will send it from the app as well. So everyone thinks you have icloud email when in fact you are actually using gmail interface.

 

[dmk1974]

cool man. if for some reason you like to use the iCloud email name over your gmail one....you can set it to send as that in gmail and it will send it from the app as well. So everyone thinks you have icloud email when in fact you are actually using gmail interface.

I actually have my own domain name and an e-mail alias that fowards to my Gmail (can set to forward to iCloud too or any other). But when sending from the iPhone, I found a way to set it so when sending an e-mail, the recipient will see the alias...only worked from Gmail though and not the same method set up coming from iCloud.

Used this method, but didn't work with the iCloud IMAP settings for some reason:
http://www.imore.com/daily-tip-set-gmail-alias

 

[LoveMyPens]

I have gone back and forth on this. iCloud works well but just something about Google/Gmail that keeps calling me back. One of the reasons I went back to Gmail was that if I were to get an invite to my iCloud accout from someone non-iCloud and they made any updates, I would not receive them. Only calendar updates I'd receive were iCloud to iCloud. That being said I would recommend either one. I'm going with gmail though, at least this week anyway

 

[MacManTexas56]

I have gone back and forth on this. iCloud works well but just something about Google/Gmail that keeps calling me back. One of the reasons I went back to Gmail was that if I were to get an invite to my iCloud accout from someone non-iCloud and they made any updates, I would not receive them. Only calendar updates I'd receive were iCloud to iCloud. That being said I would recommend either one. I'm going with gmail though, at least this week anyway

but how do you do invites at all on your iOS device with gmail?

 

[macgrl]

mail via google apps with own domain name

 

[LoveMyPens]

but how do you do invites at all on your iOS device with gmail?

Through my calendar (google account)

 

[daveghard]

I've been gmail user since it was first available through invites only
I've been mobile me user during its premium time

iCloud/Me.com mail works very well if you use apple devices, my family all equipped with apple devices and we have our communication seamless. Mail rules on my Mac is great but it doesn't work on iOS

my gmail of course used as primary mail on my standby android. i used it only when friends on gmail chat because they used it at work. i use gmail on gmail app on iOS but never used it on iOS mail app.

if i weigh in both i feel both were the same, for casual people who's intention is to send/recieve email.

i don't know the magic but..i preferred iCloud/Me.com. Also, In the web version, interface is so clean unlike the gmail look so cluttered.

If you switch platform on later date better use gMail.