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Asked: 2026-06-09T10:37:08+00:00

I want to write an app that consolidates/aggregates multiple email accounts (e.g., att.net and

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I want to write an app that consolidates/aggregates multiple email accounts (e.g., att.net and gmail) so that the user can experience “one-stop-shopping” for all of their mail, or at least all of their personal email (I don’t think it will be possible (or perhaps even illegal) to include work mail, such as Outlook, that may be behind corporate walls).

However, before I get started on this, I need to know if this is even possible for personal email, IOW: are the necessary “connection strings” for email providers such as gmail, hotmail, att.net/yahoo, etc. “public knowledge”?

Obviously, the user would need to enter their userName and passWord, but to connect to the appropriate mail server then – can I rely on it being something persistent and “open” for access?

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  1. Editorial Team

    All email providers provide standard Internet Protocols to access their email.

    Most are POP3, many are IMAP.
    Gmail offers both of these, as do most providers.

    POP3 Protocol Specification: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1939.html#b
    IMAP Protocol Specification: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3501.html#b

    ActiveSync (EAS) from Microsoft, and implemented by many major providers, and most (all?) phones is a proprietary protocol, which requires a license from Microsoft to implement:
    http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/en/us/intellectualproperty/iplicensing/programs/exchangeactivesyncprotocol.aspx

    Most corporations allow ActiveSync access from external clients, however not many allow POP3, and some allow IMAP.

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