Internet Access Message Protocol, or IMAP, is a protocol for receiving emails. It stores the email on its server and synchronises it across multiple devices so you can access your emails whenever you have an internet connection.
Internet access message protocol allows you to access your emails wherever you are and from any device. When reading your email using IMAP, you are reading it from the email server directly rather than downloading or storing it on your device. As a result, you can access and read your emails from any device anywhere in the world just by logging in to your account.
Steps Involved in Internet Access Message Protocol Operation
- When a new user registers, an email client uses the internet access message protocol to connect to the server.
- They use specific ports to establish the connections.
- The email client shows the headers of every email.
- When the user clicks on the email, the messages are downloaded to the server, and the user can access it from any device.
- The internet access message protocol does not automatically download attachments.
- Emails will stay on the server until the user deletes them.
- IMAP assigns port number 993 over the security socket layer (SSL) but listens on port 143.
IMAP Pros
- It provides security for POP3 protocol since the email only exists on the IMAP server.
- It offers synchronisation of the email message across all user-maintained sessions.
- There is no need to provide or allocate storage to save email messages.
- Users have remote access to all their email content.
- It supports easy migration between different devices since it can be synchronised across different devices.
IMAP Cons
- It is slower to load messages.
- It is more complex to maintain.
- Users can only access emails with an internet connection.
- Some emails don’t support IMAP, so managing it isn’t easy.