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I want an app that can push my emails so they show up with the blue screen and with my notification tone.

I've tried Im+ but it's a chat also and I just want to push my emails. I have Gmail, and I only want to push Gmail mails.

Is there an app that can do just that?

Note: I want the blue icon that appears with a sound. (This is the exact same thing that happens to SMS and any other push notification.

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sounds like a terrible idea, since SMS is limited to 160 characters and almost no e-mails are that short. – Cawas May 9 '11 at 18:40
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sorry I described it all wrong. it's edited now. sms isn't limited to 160 on my Iphone! ;) – Alvar May 14 '11 at 20:11
You must be confusing push notifications and SMS. There is no way to do more than 160 chars in a SMS without them being split up. – jmlumpkin May 14 '11 at 22:14
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Ok, so I believe what you're wondering if "Is there an app that can push gmail messages to the phone screen". How about that new title? Also, drop SMS at all, unless you mean SMS ringtone. – Cawas May 15 '11 at 3:27
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are you using gmail? or what email provider do you use? gmail does have an exchange server for the mobil devices, and the native mail app supports pushing from exchange server.. – fredrik May 15 '11 at 9:35
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4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted
+50

You can get push notifications for Gmail by setting up Google sync.

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thanks this works! great! well there is no blue window, but I get the mail just secconds after it's sent! :D awesome! :) – Alvar May 16 '11 at 10:57
up vote 3 down vote

I think you might be confusing "push" and "SMS".

Push allows an email client to receive a message shortly after it has been sent, without waiting for a "fetch" window at n minutes.

If you just want all mail to show up as SMS (text message), you can use Gmail's built-in forwarding to achieve this. It will forward the email as soon as it is received, and all SMS messages are delivered in a "push"-y manner, so this should do what you want.

  1. Open Gmail's "Mail settings"
  2. Select the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab
  3. Click the button to "Add a fowarding address" and enter your phone's SMS text number (you can find a very comprehensive list of carrier email-to-SMS addresses here: http://www.emailtextmessages.com/)
  4. Verify that you own the address (they will send a verification code to the address, and you'll enter it in Gmail)
  5. Select to "Forward a copy of incoming mail to" that address you just entered
  6. Choose to "keep Gmail's copy in the inbox" if you would also like to be able to access your email the traditional way

You don't need to sign up for any third-party service, it's free, and you'll get your SMS messages immediately.

If you only want to forward a subset of your email, you can set that up in Gmail as a filter with a rule that forwards to your SMS email address.

Keep in mind the limitations of SMS, though. The theoretical maximum length for an SMS is 255 concatenated 160 character messages, but most carriers will limit it to only a few messages -- so you might lose a lot of body text on longer emails. But it will serve as good, fast notification that a new email has arrived.

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If I use Im+ they show up as a SMS with the blue window. and I just want that notification! I live in sweden so sms wont work, I have Telia and they aren't on your list there... – Alvar May 10 '11 at 13:22
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@Alvar Ah, here's the problem! You've been saying you want "SMS", but then right here you say "SMS won't work" where you are. The little "blue windows" are iPhone notifications -- SMS messages are only one of many things that can pop-up notifications. If you use the wrong term, it's very confusing for the people who are trying to help you. Please edit your question to better reflect what you're looking for. – Austin May 10 '11 at 15:29
true, but I was just describing the thing I wanted.... – Alvar May 14 '11 at 20:08
This is perfect for me, thanks! At least on my t-mobile phone, gmail sends a picture of the email (rather than the text containing it) so that neatly sidesteps the limit of sms messages, though I do have to watch for my phone's all-too-small memory limit) – Raven Dreamer May 16 '11 at 5:25
up vote 1 down vote

You might want to take a look at Boxcar. It may not be exactly what you're looking for, but it might work.

Since you don't seem to like Boxcar, then perhaps you can simply check on Google about different alternatives. You may come up with something like "How To Send Email To Any Cell Phone (for Free)", which again, I don't know if it's going to be useful, because you don't mention much other than an existing 6€ alternative is too expensive.

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1 you have to sign up. 2 you can only forward messages to this client program. 3 it can't push emails. – Alvar May 8 '11 at 15:47
up vote 1 down vote

The Google Search app can accept push notifications for your Gmail account. This way when you get a new email, it will send a push notification to your phone.

Link (in US store): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-search/id284815942?mt=8

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Great! What is the app called? because I can't find it in the app store for Iphone!? – Alvar May 14 '11 at 22:28
Just search for Google, the icon is a lowercase 'g'. – jmlumpkin May 15 '11 at 0:46
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Here is the post from google talking about it last year googlemobile.blogspot.com/2010/08/… – jmlumpkin May 15 '11 at 0:48
give me an itunes link and I will believe you because I can't find it now! – Alvar May 15 '11 at 8:28
This is a link to it in the US store, itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-search/id284815942?mt=8 , I guess its full name is Google Search. Push settings are under the settings in app. – jmlumpkin May 15 '11 at 13:34
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