IMAP vs SMTP - Email protocols explained in simple terms

SMTP, IMAP, POP3…

Does your head spin already?

Let’s stop that today by explaining in layman’s terms what IMAP and SMTP are and how they work together.

And who knows, if space allows, we might also unravel some of the mysteries of POP3.

Keep reading to find out. ;-)

What is IMAP?

IMAP stands for Internet Access Message Protocol.

IMAP synchronizes the emails on its server with those in your email account. 

This means that any changes you make on one device, such as reading or deleting emails, will be reflected across all devices connected to that email account.

Simple, right?

Talking about simple:

What is SMTP?

SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

While IMAP is concerned with receiving emails, SMTP is all about sending them.

SMTP takes an outgoing email from your account to its sending server and then to the receiving server.

As you can see, SMTP has more work to do than IMAP.

Dream team? 😴

You can probably guess by now how SMTP and IMAP work together.

SMTP is like a postman sending a message and bringing it to your postbox.

The good news is that you don’t have to walk to your postbox to retrieve the mail because IMAP does it for you!

You just open your inbox, and there is the email. You never knew how emails got to you, but now you do.

POP3: The 3rd protocol 🥉

POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol.

We don't know what's up with all the fancy names, but POP3 is another simple concept.

POP3 retrieves the message from the server to a single account or device and then deletes the message from the server.

➡️POP3 was commonly used for offline email clients (like desktop email apps), but its use has declined in recent years.

To summarize:

POP3 is retrieve and delete, while IMAP is retrieve and synchronize.

Not that complicated, after all 😌

Technical concepts (like IMAP and SMTP) can sometimes be overwhelming because of the technical terms involved.

However, after doing a little research, we often find that it wasn’t hard to understand at all.

Hopefully, you’re now feeling the same way about IMAP and SMTP.