What is IMAP?

[grofee]

Internet Message Access Protocol, or IMAP, is a standard email retrieval (incoming) protocol. It stores email messages on a mail server and enables the recipient to view and manipulate them as though they were stored locally on their device(s). IMAP enables users to organize messages into folders, flag messages for urgency or follow-up, and save draft messages on the server. Users can also have multiple email client applications that sync with the email server to consistently show which messages have been read or are still unread.

[Akshay_M]

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an Internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection. IMAP is defined by RFC 3501.