Google launches a new Gmail API as it outgrows IMAP

As part of its I/O developer conference, Google today announced the launch of a new API for its Gmail service.

Eric DeFriez, Google’s technical lead for the API, noted in a blog post that the IMAP standard has worked well for connecting Gmail to email clients, but it isn’t designed for “all of the cool things” that developers want to do with the product.

The new API offers granular permissions, such as send-only. It also allows developers to keep track of changes to the inbox. Google also touts significant speed improvements with the API.

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➤ Introducing the new Gmail API

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