Syncing Gmail Actions With IMAP
Now that Gmail supports IMAP, a question that many avid Gmail users will be asking is, "How do Gmail specific actions translate over to IMAP?" For example, Gmail was always thought to be incompatible with email systems like IMAP, because they used different features, like labels and stars. However, in reality, it ends up that those features — albeit slightly different — are easily mappable to common IMAP features. For those wanting to use Gmail as an IMAP account on their OS-based email client, here's Google's official action translation
Syncing Gmail Actions in IMAP
| Action on mobile device/client (e.g. iPhone/Outlook) | Result in Gmail on the web |
|---|---|
| Open a message | Mark a message as read |
| Flag a message | Apply a star to the message |
| Move a message to a folder | Apply a label to the message |
| Move a message to a folder within a folder* | Apply a label showing folder hierarchy ('MainFolder/SubFolder')* |
| Create a folder | Create a label |
| Move a message to [Gmail]/Spam | Report a message as spam |
| Move a message to [Gmail]/Trash | Move a message to Trash |
| Send a message | Store message in Sent Mail |
| Delete a message | Remove label from the message, or delete the message permanently if the message is already in the Spam or Trash label |
