For sometime we have been using POP3 support to configure Gmail account in third party email clients such as Outlook or Thunderbird. IMAP support was never the option for Gmail. As such IMAP is considered better than POP3, realising the same Gmail now has IMAP support.

IMAP, or Internet Message Access Protocol, lets you download messages from Gmail’s servers onto your computer so you can access your mail with a program like Microsoft Outlook Express or Apple Mail, even when you aren’t connected to the Internet.

As Gmail help center explains the following advantages of its newly introduced IMAP support:

1. IMAP offers two-way communication between your web Gmail and your email client(s). 
2. IMAP provides a better method to access your mail from multiple devices.
3. IMAP offers a more stable experience overall. Whereas POP is prone to losing messages or downloading the same messages multiple times, IMAP avoids this through its two-way syncing capabilities.

This service is Free and you easily set it up. Just follow instructions on the following weblinks and it should be easy.

• Enable IMAP in your Gmail account.
• Follow the configuration instructions for your.

Google is recommending IMAP over POP3, so get set rolling with this new configuration. I am sure this will be more effective.