if you own any kind of apple device, you’ve probably created (and used) the apple mail client. in fact, if you combine all the iterations of apple mail, it turns out to be the most popular email client in the world.
Strictly speaking, Gmail leads the charts with 27.8% market share, but Apple’s iPhone is close behind with 27.6% market share.
add apple ipad mail, which also uses apple mail, at 8.5 percent, and other versions of apple mail, at 7.5 percent, and you have the world’s dominant email platform, probably because it’s automatically available on all apple devices.
but how exactly does apple mail work and how does it compare to gmail? Most importantly, if you have an Apple device that relies on Apple Mail, should you continue to use it or switch to Gmail?
In this article, we’ll compare Gmail and Apple Mail so you can decide which email platform best suits your needs.
gmail vs apple mail and icloud: the basics
let’s start by explaining what apple mail is and how it compares to gmail at a high level. Officially, Apple Mail (usually an application simply called “Mail” on Apple devices) is an email client designed for devices running iOS operating systems. it relies on smtp servers to send messages, pop3, exchange and imap to retrieve messages and s/mime for encryption.
You can find Apple Mail as an app on almost any iOS device. It comes preconfigured to support many other email providers, including (oddly enough) Gmail, Outlook, AOL Mail, Yahoo Mail, and of course iCloud, the email service most commonly associated with Apple Mail.
It’s worth noting that Apple Mail is an email client, while Gmail is considered both an email client and an email service. this difference will become clear as you read more about the differences between gmail and apple mail.
As you might suspect, Apple Mail and Gmail have a lot in common, including:
- send, receive and inbox management. both gmail and apple mail work the way you would expect a modern email client to work. you can compose, send and receive messages, and manage your inbox with all the basic features you already know, including marking emails as read or unread, organizing them, and deleting them.
- Available applications. You can access apple mail on any apple device, and you can access gmail on desktop or on any mobile device. although you’ll have to work to download a gmail app on an iphone, it’s certainly available.
- message composition. composing a message is a similar experience on both platforms regardless of whether you’re Using Gmail or Apple Mail, you can customize your message with different fonts, different formats (such as bold and italics), and various attachments. That said, attachments are a bit more complicated to include on certain devices, like iPhones.
- Contacts integration. Both email services let you manage, organize, and call conveniently to your contact bank. start typing any name and you’ll get a suggestion for the email address you need.
however, email platforms differ here.
winner: draw
gmail vs apple mail: appearance and usability
Let’s start by taking a look at the look and feel of gmail versus apple mail. Because there are so many different versions of each app, we’ll take a broad look and specifically compare mobile apps for each service.
both gmail and apple mail are very intuitive. you will mostly use the same gestures and techniques to manage your accounts; for example, you’ll be able to swipe left to delete an email from your inbox. If you look at an iteration of the gmail mobile app and the apple mail mobile app and remove all the flags, you might have trouble telling the difference between the two.
However, apple mail has some advantages and disadvantages in the realm of usability. For example, Apple has introduced the concept of “3D Touch”, which allows you to press hard on the screen of an iPhone. With 3D Touch in Apple Mail, you will be able to preview a certain email. this is a feature that the gmail app can’t match.
That said, apple mail also has some limitations; for example, it is much less intuitive to include an attachment in the iphone app. without an attach button, you’ll need to click and hold on the body content of an open email to include something like an image.
It’s also worth noting the power of apple mail notifications. With the Gmail mobile app, you’ll receive notifications based on your settings (usually an alert every time you receive a new message), and you can also turn on notifications for your Google Chrome browser. Apple Mail offers something similar, with one key advantage; you will be able to configure different notifications for your different email accounts.
For example, you can set alerts for your work email, while keeping your personal email silent (or vice versa). You can also control how often you check for new mail, turning off regular checks if you prefer to check your email manually; this is useful if you check your email too often or are frequently distracted by notifications.
winner: draw
gmail vs apple mail: organization
When it comes to organization, Apple Mail offers something unique; the ability to host multiple accounts from different sources, segmented into a single application.
For example, let’s say you have a gmail account, an icloud account, and a yahoo account. If you have an Apple Mail app, you can sync all of these accounts at once, view your inboxes separately or together, and receive notifications from all three simultaneously. this is a great advantage if you’re used to juggling multiple email accounts and need a high-level view of all of them on the go.
Of course, gmail offers something similar; You can sync other email accounts with Gmail, collecting all your email information in one place. however, it’s a bit more complicated to distinguish emails from different accounts in the context of the gmail app.
gmail also offers some unique organizational features that make it preferable for people concerned with organization. As you well know, Google is the king of search and its Gmail apps include full dynamic search function. With it, you can quickly and easily filter all your emails and find exactly the message you’re looking for.
in apple mail, searching is a bit more tedious. Additionally, Gmail offers a number of unique tools that you can use to improve your personal organization; for example, you can separate your incoming emails into category tabs based on their content, and you can mark emails with importance markers, stars, and other designations.
If you’re interested in learning more about organizational tools within gmail, be sure to check out our guide on the subject.
If you want to manage many accounts with a single app, it’s hard to beat Apple Mail, but the plethora of organization tools in Gmail make it too impressive to ignore.
winner: gmail
gmail vs apple mail: plugins and extensions
We should also talk about the plugins and extensions available for gmail and apple mail. If you know where to look, you can find a handful of extensions to improve Apple Mail on your Mac; for example, there are third-party apps that can change the way email attachments appear, improve contact management, or introduce new keyboard shortcuts. but on ipad and iphone, modifying the traditional apple mail experience is much more challenging.
In contrast, Google accepts third-party integrations, extensions, and add-ons that transform the traditional Gmail experience. for example, there are built-in third-party applications that can give you detailed analytics about your email account usage. there are tools that can automate some of your email-related tasks and give you more features that you can use in the course of your work. And if you include Google Chrome extensions, there are a variety of easy-to-use interfaces that can make it easier to navigate both your email account and the web.
If you’re interested in learning more about the apps, plugins, and extensions that make gmail awesome, we’ve listed our 54 favorites here, and that’s just the beginning. Chances are your favorite project management and communication apps offer some form of gmail integration.
Needless to say, gmail has the upper hand here. it’s much more customizable, much more open to other platforms and applications, and therefore more versatile for the average user.
winner: gmail
gmail vs apple mail: security and reliability
both apple mail and gmail have strong reputations for security, but there are a couple of considerations you’ll need to keep in mind if you’re comparing the security of the two. First, Apple Mail is an email client that connects to multiple email accounts, so it’s not the only variable you’ll need to worry about when it comes to email security. For example, if you have a Yahoo mail account connected through Apple Mail and there is a massive data breach of the Yahoo mail account, your data could still be vulnerable no matter what kind of security standards are in place at Apple.
That said, apple mail relies on s/mime for end-to-end encryption, making it one of the most reliable mail applications available.
gmail also has this option. Additionally, Gmail has some optional security features, such as two-factor authentication; With any message, you can ask the recipient to enter an SMS code to verify their identity. it could also cause the message to self-destruct after a designated period of time. either way, all you’ll need to do is click the lock and clock icon at the bottom of the email compose window to access it.
apple and google are two of the most popular and trusted technology companies in the world, so neither security nor reliability is a concern with gmail or apple mail. you can consider this category as a draw.
winner: draw
the bottom line: should i choose gmail or apple mail?
In some ways, it’s unfair to compare gmail and apple mail because they have somewhat different purposes. moreover, it is possible to hybridize the two; You can keep a Gmail account and use the Gmail desktop app for most of your email interactions, while including your Gmail account in your Apple Mail app for when you’re on the go.
Also, Apple Mail is technically an email client, rather than an email service; gmail is both an email service and an email client.
That said, apple mail and gmail have pros and cons, as you’d expect from any competing email platform. Apple Mail’s ability to keep all your email accounts organized and its 3D touch previews make it ideal for mobile-intensive users, but Gmail’s versatility and range of search and organization are hard to beat. p>
by itself, gmail has everything you’d want in an email service, so that’s what I’m going to recommend; If you like Apple Mail, or if you’re used to Apple devices in general, you can still use your Gmail account along with Apple Mail.
Be sure to check out our other posts comparing Gmail to popular email providers!
- gmail vs outlook
- gmail vs yahoo mail
- gmail vs hotmail
for more email clients besides gmail & apple, check out this list of the best email clients.
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