How JMAP benefits users
JMAP recognizes how mail clients should talk to services in the context of how people use email today. For web and mobile use, it can offer remote access to your entire, potentially massive email archive nearly as fast as if you had the whole dataset already on your device, making super-efficient use of the network.
On mobile, one of our most concrete examples is how fast an immediate push notification works with the JMAP-powered FastMail app. Instead of waiting for a refresh, users get instant notification on their phone when the server receives an email. Of course, notifications are optional, allowing users to choose whether they prioritize immediacy or would prefer to handle their email in batches.
The Internet is moving towards APIs and microservices. This allows new entrants to a market to build on top of existing services. JMAP makes it very easy to add a subset of information from a mailbox or a calendar to a new service.
As an email provider, were seeing more and more customers calling for greater transparency from big technology companies, and they are getting excited about open standards as a key to providing that good. Consumers are becoming more aware of the disadvantages of being locked into a single vendor. Discerning customers not only enjoy the features that JMAP provides, but they can also rally behind the importance of a healthy, open Internet. We look forward to continuing work in the IETF to build on the capabilities JMAP provides.