Google has announced a new Gmail API to replace the IMAP protocol. According to Google, while IMAP is great for standard email clients wanting to connect to an email server, the function is was designed for, it is no longer adequate for new features Gmail makes available or the way services have evolved. I wonder how this might impact future email clients though.

One of the differences for Gmail compared to IMAP is the addition of Labels, which Gmail uses instead of folders. The new Gmail API is designed to work with those labels in providing full RESTful access using OAuth 2.0 authorisation and the ability to support CRUD operations.

Another change is in the fact that this is a standard Google API that enables simple HTTPS calls to query or call Gmail. This means developers can use a variety of standard web languages and frameworks to access. As a standard Google API, it also means normal Google search queries can be used to only pull a subset of messages instead of accessing all messages as IMAP required. The new API also adds more granularity to functions accessed, like only giving an app “compose” access so it can send a message and not read access to a user’s messages.

The above should help improve speed of access.