Apple Broke Push Notifications, So We Fixed It (Sort Of)

As many of you know, Apple recently threw a wrench in our ability to provide push notifications for the iOS Mail app. We’ve been working around the clock to develop a solution, and today we’re rolling out what we’re calling a beta version of Push notifications for iOS. There will be bumps in the road, but we need real-world usage to iron them out. Here’s what you need to know:

The Key Details

  • Your inbox will appear empty at first. After setting up your account, your Mail app won’t show your inbox for a few minutes. This is due to an initial sync process that Apple gives you absolutely no feedback on. Just wait it out, and your emails will appear when it’s done.
  • We built our own Z-Push backend. It’s designed for speed, and new emails should be pushed to your Mail app within one minute of hitting our servers. We’re continuously refining this to make it even faster.
  • This uses the Exchange protocol. Is it perfect? No. Is that the goal? Always. For now, Notes, Calendars, Contacts, and Reminders won’t work. You’ll be instructed to disable them during setup, but we do plan to add support later.

IMPORTANT: Your MX records must be pointed to MXroute for this to function.

Setting Up Push Notifications on iOS Mail

Follow these steps to get it running:

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Use the Search bar to find “Mail accounts.”
  3. Tap Mail Accounts (Apps → Mail).
  4. Tap Add Account.
  5. Select Microsoft Exchange.
  6. Enter your email address in the Email field.
  7. Tap Next.
  8. When prompted, tap Configure Manually.
  9. Enter your email password.
  10. Tap Next.
  11. In the Server field, enter: push.mxroute.com
  12. In the Username field, enter your email address.
  13. Tap Save.
  14. Uncheck Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, and Notes.
  15. Tap Save again.
  16. Walk away, grab a coffee, scroll social media—come back in 5-10 minutes and check your inbox.

Need a visual guide? Here’s a short video walking you through the setup (note: Apple hides password fields in screen recordings, so they may appear empty, but they’re not):
📹 Watch the setup video

This is a work in progress, and we appreciate everyone willing to jump in and test it out. As always, feedback is welcome!

Known bugs:
- Email sent through this is not signed by DKIM, high priority