Why emails get to my phone before my laptop?

[Riley Blue]

For years now I've noticed that my phone, a Motorola G9 Plus, receives emails before my laptop or desktop computers.

It doesn't cause any problems but I'm just curious why it happens.

[Tye Green]

when a family what's app group message comes to me and Mrs Green whilst we're sitting next to each other and on the same wifi network and both on iphone 12s, my phone always pings about 0.5-1 second before hers does. does that info help?

[Doofus]

Riley Blue said:

For years now I've noticed that my phone, a Motorola G9 Plus, receives emails before my laptop or desktop computers.

It doesn't cause any problems but I'm just curious why it happens.

Your phone will be polling (checking for new messages) more frequently.

[Monkeylegend]

Have you tried moving your phone closer ?

[Riley Blue]

Doofus said:

Riley Blue said:

For years now I've noticed that my phone, a Motorola G9 Plus, receives emails before my laptop or desktop computers.

It doesn't cause any problems but I'm just curious why it happens.

Your phone will be polling (checking for new messages) more frequently.

Thanks, that had never occurred to me.

[Bluevanman]

It's the opposite for me. My pc receives emails before my phone, which is set to scan for new messages every 15 minutes.The frequency can be changed in settings.I imagine my pc is scanning more often .

• Scanning probably not the right technical term but you know what I mean *

[abzmike]

Yep - work emails via O365 are about 30 seconds ahead on my phone as opposed to my laptop. Can help build the elation or dread of properly reading.

[zedx19]

I thought emails were pushed to phones now, not pulled by the phone checking? So as soon as a new email lands, it is sent directly to the phone. Where as Outlook on my laptop checks for emails every few minutes, emails aren't pushed direct to the laptop.

Might be talking utter twoddle here though.

[Doofus]

zedx19 said:

I thought emails were pushed to phones now, not pulled by the phone checking? So as soon as a new email lands, it is sent directly to the phone. Where as Outlook on my laptop checks for emails every few minutes, emails aren't pushed direct to the laptop.

Might be talking utter twoddle here though.

I think it depends on what email client you use.

[Riley Blue]

Doofus said:

zedx19 said:

I thought emails were pushed to phones now, not pulled by the phone checking? So as soon as a new email lands, it is sent directly to the phone. Where as Outlook on my laptop checks for emails every few minutes, emails aren't pushed direct to the laptop.

Might be talking utter twoddle here though.

I think it depends on what email client you use.

Aha! Thunderbird was only checking every 10 minutes, now every three.

[Granadier]

I've recently changed from an Android phone to an iPhone. I find Apple's Mail app is much slower at connecting to server and receiving messages than what I used to use (Yahoo website on Samsung Internet app*).

• Years ago I tried the Yahoo app but ditched it when my phone storage was running low and this app seemed to consume a disproportionate amount, while being no better than using the browser

[768]

zedx19 said:

I thought emails were pushed to phones now, not pulled by the phone checking? So as soon as a new email lands, it is sent directly to the phone. Where as Outlook on my laptop checks for emails every few minutes, emails aren't pushed direct to the laptop.

Might be talking utter twoddle here though.

You're probably right, the phone's likely using websockets, which a browser on the computer should do too, but a mail client on a desktop is likely polling at an interval.

[megaphone]

Pushing email, or fetching too often can be a big drain on the battery, especially if you have multiple email accounts.

On my iPhone I have it set to fetch every 30 mins, the Mail app is the biggest battery user by far, although I do have 10 email accounts.

Edited by megaphone on Thursday 19th September 15:09

[greygoose]

Granadier said:

I've recently changed from an Android phone to an iPhone. I find Apple's Mail app is much slower at connecting to server and receiving messages than what I used to use (Yahoo website on Samsung Internet app*).

• Years ago I tried the Yahoo app but ditched it when my phone storage was running low and this app seemed to consume a disproportionate amount, while being no better than using the browser

My android phone gets emails and Facebook stuff before my iPad every time, only by a few seconds though.

[President Merkin]

On Android & probably others, you can if you want change the freqiuency the phone checks for email. Tap the account name & then settings & sync frequency.

[dundarach]

It's because the spy software installed on your laptop to activate your webcam without turning on the little light, is slowing it down just a bit.....

That or

Software which app, how's it configured
Settings does it push, pull, when and how often
Connection where is it, how's it connected

[SV_WDC]

A lot depends on how the device is configured.

Pull service (check for a new message every x minutes/hours) is different to a push service.

Apple, Android & Windows all use have their own Push service configurations. This is why a poster asking about WA notifications may receive them slower than his wife.

PC notifications should be immediate but a delay might be because of power usage configurations or other things going on with the laptop. It might also simply be because the laptop is setup in pull mode whereas phones can be in push mode.

Edited by SV_WDC on Thursday 19th September 15:56