Push Notifications on eM Client mobile

Unlike desktop, iOS and Android don't reliably support background app activity - iOS blocks it entirely, and Android can stop it at any time depending on the device or battery settings. This means you may miss new message alerts until you reopen the app.

That's why eM Client mobile uses Push Notifications to keep you informed on iOS and Android.

How do Push notifications work?

Push notifications in eM Client rely on a chain of components working together: the eM Client app on your device, your mail server, our gateway, our push servers, and Firebase - Google's cloud messaging service that delivers the final notification to your phone or tablet.

PUSH Server Addresses for Whitelisting

Our push servers use the following addresses when connecting to your mail server. If you notice connections from these IPs on your mail server, this is the eM Client Push Notification service at work.

Blocking these addresses will prevent Push Notifications from working correctly.

Are Push Notifications Safe?

Enabling Push Notifications means eM Client's push servers need to connect to your mail server on your behalf, which requires temporarily holding your account credentials (encrypted passwords or OAuth tokens).

Here's how we handle that:

• Credentials are stored in-memory only. They are never written to a database, log file, or disk storage. This means that even if someone gained unauthorized access to our servers, your credentials would not be retrievable.

• OAuth tokens are used where possible. For accounts that support OAuth (such as Gmail or Outlook), we use short-lived tokens rather than your actual password.

• Only envelope data is processed. The push server reads only the sender, subject and the timestamp. The message body or attachments are never accessed or stored by our servers.

• Google security audit. Google requires all apps using Firebase Cloud Messaging to pass a security review. eM Client has completed this audit.
  You can read the Leviathan Security Group's assessment of eM Client, confirming it meets cloud application security requirements.

Since some data processing is unavoidable with Push Notifications, the feature is entirely optional and can be enabled or disabled per account. You can configure this during initial account setup, or at any time later via Settings > Accounts > [Your Account] > Use Push Notifications.

When Does Monitoring Stop?

Turning off Push Notifications in Settings stops the push server from monitoring your account immediately. No further connections to your mail server are made from our side.
Simply go to Settings, click your Account name, uncheck the “Use push notifications” option and exit Settings, so the change is synchronized to the gateway.

If you uninstall the app without disabling Push Notifications first, our servers have no way of knowing the app is gone, as neither Apple nor Google notify us when the app is uninstalled. The registration is cleaned up automatically when one of the following happens:

• A new message arrives and the notification delivery fails: if Firebase reports the registration as invalid, it is immediately removed.

• No activity is detected for 15 days: if no connection is made to the gateway for the account during that time, it is automatically removed from our push servers, and monitoring stops completely.