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How can I get Gmail new message notifications without having to sync an account with my Android phone?

I thought there may be a way by either :

  1. going through XMPP somehow

  2. configuring Gmail to notify Google+ when I get a new email and then I would get a G+ notification which would be fine.

I just want my phone to tell me "you have a new email" without having to actually sync anything.

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    What exactly do you mean by "without having to sync"? Gmail already uses push (via Google Cloud Messaging) to deliver new mails to your device, so it has no more overhead than the G+ solution you're thinking of. – Dan Hulme Feb 28 '14 at 14:40
  • I want to be notified that I have a new email without having to sync my gmail account with android. Yes Gmail does this but it requires syncing your account which totally destroys the whole point. The whole point of getting a push notification is to save your battery and data not having to PULL/SYNC every 5 minutes. – Joshua Robison Feb 28 '14 at 14:55
  • It doesn't pull every 5 minutes. It runs when it gets a push message, to download exactly the new mail it's just been told about. It's the most efficient way to see your mail. – Dan Hulme Feb 28 '14 at 15:03
  • I want a push notification without syncing. That's what I'm asking for. I want to get as many of those services in my settings, stopped as possible. I know how much data and battery all those services are using and gmail is a big one. I just want push without sync – Joshua Robison Feb 28 '14 at 15:12
  • The closest thing I've found is zappier.com and it's a paid service :( – Joshua Robison Feb 28 '14 at 15:31
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Here is a (mostly) non-Android solution for you.

You'll need to (sign up for and) use If This Then That.

Create a recipe.1

Your This will be the Gmail channel, specifically the Any new email trigger.2

Your That will be however you'd like to be notified. I like Pushover but SMS will work just as well. You'll use the Send me an SMS action (or send a notification for Pushover).3

Now you can be notified of new messages in your Gmail without even actually having Gmail on your phone.4

1 If you prefer, you can just use this recipe (SMS) or this recipe (Pushover).

2 If you don't want to be notified on every new message, there are other triggers you can use, like "New email from" or "New email from search" that can be more specific.

3 Unfortunately there is no Google+ channel. There a lots of other channels for lots of other services.

4 IFTTT triggers usually don't go off more than every fifteen minutes, so don't expect your notification to be instantaneous.

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  • I have to say. I am very very thankful for this solution. I had no idea about this free service until now. It looks amazing. I'll check it out and get back to you for the answer. Thank you @Al E. – Joshua Robison Feb 28 '14 at 23:17
  • Ifttt by the way can only currently push ONE email account. – Joshua Robison Mar 5 '14 at 2:03
  • @Joshua: yes, unfortunately you are currently limited to a single email account. They've also recently added the Pushbullet channel if you're looking for a different alert mechanism. – ale Mar 27 '14 at 13:23
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I gave the answer to Al E. For taking the time to help me and provide a great working solution. ( though not the solution I ended up going with as 1) I didn't want to fork over $5 for the pushover app or 2) I'd already implemented another solution that works great as well.

THE SOLUTION I WENT WITH WAS THIS

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.shapeservices.impluslite

The app is called IM+
It's free to use and install with ads.

Set it up with your email accounts and go into settings and switch on "Google push mode" in "push settings"

Turn off or even disable the gmail app and voila -- gmail push settings without syncing. The great thing about the XMPP Network is, there are a lot of other services you can get push notifications for for free.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with this.

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