I did a fair amount of searching on here before posting this. I also had tried numerous times myself with various methods and attempts before finally calling RIM. I'm more than happy to have shelled out the $49 bucks to RIM in order to get this functioning but more importantly to share that information with you guys.

Here's the skinny, and here's what I've found to be very very helpful.
RIM apparently has have updated their systems internally to recognize any gmail hosted(including Google Apps) e-mail addresses as Gmail accounts. They are internally RIM prioritized as being Gmail and receive "Notification Request's" which is what makes it push. When you use your Google Apps e-mail and password the BIS SHOULD see google in your MX records and automatically flag it. NOTE: this is not 100% YET.

If you're account was setup already you should delete it and try again.

What I've found is that you should wait at least 72 hrs after integrating the Google Apps account BEFORE trying this. I believe a large amount of the problems I was having was due to the fact that my DNS & MX records had not fully updated themselves yet. Give your domain and hosting service some time to get those google records nice and warm in your domain.

If that still doesn't work, it's time to call rim. You'll have to do some minimal customer servicing/explaining but eventually they'll ask their supervisor and they'll do it.

I'm unbelievably proud, thrilled, and excited to share that it's fully integrated via Gmail's push and the technician was equally excited when he told me we had gotten the "Notification Request"/push for my domain!

Hope this helps anyone from any headaches.


p.s- One last thing to remember, your domain now functions as a Gmail and while that gives you the push, you also get the DUPLICATES. Use your filters and any other problem solvers you run into as you would with a regular gmail account.

This is in fact true. Call your provider, explain you need to talk to rim support. When you get connected to RIM, explain the issue -- they will transfer you to email support. Then they add your domain to the master list of domains that have BIS push functionality.

Thanks for doing this. I called my carrier a week ago to try and solve this issue and asked to be transferred to RIM, but they said they didn't have that ability.

Anyway, it seems that you have solved one issue (push), but that there are some other things you still need to resolve for this to be working properly. First off, full two way sync is a must, and so is NOT receiving duplicates. I believe I found a fix for this last night. Head to your Google apps account, click on settings, and the forwarding and pop. Make sure that IMAP is selected, and then click below where it has instructions on how to set up your email client or device. Tell it you have a BlackBerry, and then follow the instructions on your carrier's BIS site. Make sure to also check the box that says to delete items between the account and the device. Doing the setup this way also makes it so that your BB will not receive sent items as new mail. You don't have to set up any goofy filters, etc. for this functionality. If you follow the instructions for IMAP, it just takes care of it for you.

Now, make sure that once your account is set up and you receive the confirmation on your BB, that you also go in to the mail settings for that account. Open the account, go to options, email reconciliation, and then change delete on to: mailbox and handheld. Doing so will give you two way sync where if you delete an email from Gmail, it will delete it from your BB and if you delete one from your BB it will delete it from Gmail.

Now, the question is if it will do the two way sync instantly. I tried this, and everything seems to work great, except for it can sometimes take an hour for it to sync up. That's unacceptable. Hopefully your conversation with RIM will shed some light on this, and if your domain is set up for true push, it will also do instant sync. Please try the above steps, and let us know how it works.

Until I know it syncs instantly, the Gmail application software is still better for me. If you have not downloaded that for your BB, you may find that it is better than the BB email software. It lets you search your entire database of "all mail", lets you view attachments, syncs both ways, etc. The only downfall is that it isn't always instant, and it moves around a bit slower than the BB email program. There's always an F'ing give and take with this sort of stuff, it seems.

I'm actually not into the 2Way sync so I have those options not seleted.
I keep e-mails on my BB for reference more than I do on my CPU.

Wow, you know- different strokes for different folks, but I would sure get tired of seeing double emails in multiple places.

Besides, the Gmail app will give you MUCH more functionality to reference emails, as it gives you access to every single email you have ever sent or received.

I've read all the previous posts and think I have understood it all (even if I'm quite new with all these things).

Are you saying (please, correct me if I'm wrong) that:
1) By setting up a domain on Gmail Apps ($10 I think)
2) By setting up an email address related to this domain (@yourcompany.com) and adding it to my BB's email list
3) By calling my provider, asking to talk to the RIM people and explaining I want my domain to be added to the "push domain" list

You can actually have a real-time, private domain related e-mail address on your Blackberry (meaning, emails are received/sent instantly) ???

Thanks for letting me know.

Yes, and No.
I personal choose to go with the Premier edition of Google Apps. The cost is $50 per user account(or e-mail account). You can still use aliases etc but if you want full functioning e-mail accounts then its 50 bucks a pop. You get much more functionality and options with the Premier edition. The process following that to ensure optimal operation would be to call RIM directly, tell them to associate your domain with Gmail's servers. Tell them you want "Notification Requests" places on the e-mails you'll be setting up for this account. After that, then setup your @domain.com e-mail on your BB and it should stick, no Imap, no advance setup, just username and password. Make sure you've enabled POP and IMAP on your Gmail Account for your domain.

Note: you don't HAVE to call RIM directly, seems you can call your provider, argue, escalate, argue, hold, escalate and eventually get to RIM. I personally find it more efficient use of time to simply eat the $49 and call RIM directly.

I didn't have to argue. T-mobile immediately transferred me to RIM when I described the issue. And the standard edition of google apps is free. I don't know why you'd bother paying an extra $50. Why would RIM support care that you paid Google $50 extra?

Just wanted to thank everyone for their support and help!!
It was my first and only topic on Blackberry Forums and you guys were all very helpful.

I have just managed to set everything up, as explained above.

1) Bought a domain name off Google Apps ($10/year)
2) Set up a couple of email addresses @mydomain.com
3) Phoned RIM, spent $49 and had an amazing support guy on the phone. Conversation lasted about 55 minutes on a toll free number, he was taking his time and making sure everything was working fine. He set everything up the way you guys explained (associated my domain name with a Gmail server)
4) Everything is now "instant" using this new

Thanks all for your help.
I have to admit that I was amazed by the quality of customer support provided with by RIM.

Renaaldo.

just want to confirm as user on at&t that rim has fixed this issue. they are now automatically detecting domains that have been enabled with google apps for your domain.

I started checking on this issue again, now that some time has passed and folks are claiming that RIM has fixed some things on their side.

I called RIM customer support regarding push capabilities through the BlackBerry internet services and Google apps. They told me that unless I was using BIS, that push email is NOT even a possibility. They said that it just pulls the emails up to every 15 minutes! I didn't believe her, so I called back and got someone else. This gal told me the same thing, so I inquired about BIS with Google apps. She further told me that BIS will not work with Google apps!

So, what's the deal? Who is right here? Some of you have claimed to get push email capabilities, but yet two different RIM support people completely contradicted this. Now, this would not be the first time a support person was wrong, but I did confirm it with another support person. Are you guys really getting push email capabilities, or are you just assuming it's push? Have you tried sending yourself multiple test emails from another email account to the one your BlackBerry checks to make sure that it is receiving them on the device immediately? If not, you're guessing.

It's working. I signed up for google apps last week and became angry because it wouldn't push to my blackberry. I cancelled google apps and signed up again today (5 days later) and it is great. Pushes instantly.

Google has instructions now for Blackberry users, using Google Apps.

Once the MX mail settings are changed and proprogated, sign into AT&T BIS and add an account. . It came back telling me it couldn't be configured and instantly I got an email from google stating the following:

I signed back into AT&T BIS and manually configured the settings above changing the pop server to pop.gmail.com instead of mail.domain.com.

One last thing, make sure you have POP enabled in your Google Apps Mailbox settings.

Works like a charm.

Once this is working (using the POP settings as described above) does your Blackberry email stay in sync with your Gmail box i.e. if you delete an email on your Blackberry, does it delete it on Gmail? When you read it on your Blackberry, does it show up as "read" on Gmail?

I doubt it. That's the problem with his response. Instant email isn't so great if it's just a copy of what is waiting for you back in your Outlook inbox. Having to delete emails from multiple places is very inefficient. I suspect folks that give these types of responses have never actually had IMAP working between Outlook, their BlackBerry, and all other methods of checking email, such as a browser.

Just thought I would share my Google Apps push experience. I signed up for Google apps (free edition) a few weeks ago, and have my domain at GoDaddy. Initially the BIS site would only manually add my address using the Gmail IMAP or POP settings, without instant push. I placed a call into ATT the today, and they got me on the phone with RIM. Spent around 20 minutes on the phone with them, and they enabled and verified that instant push was enabled on my domain. I now have both POP and IMAP turned off in Google Apps, and the BIS site will auto configure the email account, just like my regular Gmail accounts. Very nicely done RIM, and was quite impressed with ATT that they didn't have a problem transferring me over to RIM.

On a side note, with GoDaddy, with the MX records I set the TTL to 1 hour instead of the 1 week, posted by Google. That didn't help, and prompted me to call ATT today.

How have you all solved the "sent" messages appearing in the inbox on the BB? I have tried the "from" filter with no luck. Thanks for your help, I have a client disparate for answers.

So do we still need to place a call to our provider and hope they escalate us to RIM support or what? Everything works fine so far except for the whole push thing. In fact, BIS doesn't won't configure it automatically. I have to do it manually using POP or IMAP and these are not PUSH or INSTANT. I just want my domain I'm using with Google Apps to function like my gmail account!

I just called RIM directly and paid the $55 fee and skipped the Rogers tech support experience. Got both my corporate and personal Google Apps domains working. They're both coming in instantly and it was one of the best customer service experiences in a while. Very thorough and very helpful. Highly receommended.

Thanks for the reply. It's just hard to swallow that $50 when it should really work without problem. Now, I have 3 domains I would like this to work for. Do I need to pay the $50 x 3 or will one call fix them all? Does anyone know if there is anyway to get this done without having to pay the $50 for RIM support?

They did both domains for me on the same call. Waited and tested both of them with me several times.

Thanks a lot for the info. I may try getting to RIM support from my provider (Verizon). I have a really really tough time biting the bullet on that $50 bucks for something so simple.

Ok, guys. I just got off the phone with RIM, and they have shed some light on this that makes sense now. If you are using BIS, there is no way to get instant push with Google apps. It goes out to check for mail every 15 minutes. If there is new mail, it will go out in another 3 minutes. If there is mail, it will go out in another 3 minutes, then 6, then 9. Basically they're trying to make it easier for you to receive replies back and forth with a person quickly, but if you're just receiving an email here and there it will appear that it is taking 15 minutes to receive them.

I really think you're wasting your time spending money on this service with RIM. They didn't even charge me to tell me the above, and I was more than willing to pay the fee to get it working.

If you were using BES, that would be a different story.

This is so inaccurate it's not even funny. I am on BIS, yes BIS, not BES. I have 3 domains using Google Apps and all 3 push mail instantly. In fact, it's so instant that I get the emails on my BlackBerry before my googletalk desktop client gets the notification.

I did exactly what this thread said to do except I called my provider (verizon) and had them put me through to RIM to avoid the charge. I spent about 10 minutes on the phone with Verizon BlackBerry support before they went ahead and called RIM. The guy from RIM knew EXACTLY what I was talking about and what needed to be done. I gave him the 3 domain names, he added them to a database, and all was good to go. The entire process took less than 30 minutes and now I have push email on 3 domains. It's fantastic and my users that have emails at those domains with blackberries love it!

So yeah, if you are having problems getting push email to work with your google apps domain then call your provider and try to get them to get RIM involved. If they won't pony up and pay the money.

I have some questions/clarifications. Great thread guys btw!

1. Someone mentioned that Google Apps Premier is better for this. How so?
2. I should call my carrier Verizon Wireless and tell them what exactly, I need to enable push for my Google Apps domain?
3. Does syncing two-way work now? If I were to read a message on the Gmail interface, would it sync up with the blackberry instantly?
4. Does anyone use Google Apps with Outlook? I know IMAP is kinda buggy with Outlook, any experiences?
5. I know there is calendar sync for the BB, how about contacts, anyway to sync them up?

Thanks

I'm gonna go down the list here:

1. I don't see how this can be true. I have Google Apps Standard and it works as it should. I don't see any features offered by the Premier edition that would make it "better". It's simple, you either get the emails on your phone instantly or you don't.

2. Do you want me to write out exactly what you should say? Just call them, go through the menus and get to Verizons BlackBerry people. At that point, tell them you have a domain hosted through Google Apps and the email is not pushing instantly. Depending on who you get, they will probably talk you through a bunch of crap. If you're a technical person, you will have an easier time with this. I was honest and up front with the person who answered the phone. I told them my problem and I told them that I knew the only way to fix it properly was to speak with RIM. He put me on hold and came back with a guy from RIM. The RIM representative knew instantly what I was talking about. He took my 3 domain names came back a few minutes later and everything has been golden since. I even lost my phone connection and the guy from RIM called ME back.

3. This does not work. I have had crazy things happen where I delete something from gmail and sometime later it disappears from my BlackBerry but it's not consistent. I have tested it but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

4. My wife uses Outlook (I use the web interface) although I have it setup using POP and not IMAP.

5. None as of now. There might be some way you can rig it where you sync the BlackBerry with Outlook and then sync that with gmail but there is no direct way to sync your BlackBerry with your gmail (or google apps hosted domain) contacts.

Google does make available BlackBerry clients for accessing your mail and your contacts are available that way. But that's just a program that runs on your BlackBerry, I like the push email best. It's only about 95% perfect but thats close enough for me. I can deal with the little quirks here and there.

Well, I was going to provide links for you but the admins feel that no one with less than 10 posts should be allowed to put links up. I'm sure you can find the Google clients yourself.

The only reason I think I might pay for it is for the 24/7 "real" support and the SLA. I just feel a little bit more secure in case something ever were to happen, god forbid, to Google's servers ;)

Nope, I think I got the idea ;)

So to clarify, if I were to read a message on my Gmail account it would not appear as read on the BB?

Yeah, I think I'm going to stick with the interface.

Are there ever any quirks with actual email delivery?

Thanks for the great information.

Correct, if you read an email in gmail it will not be marked as read in your BlackBerry. If you delete in gmail, it will also not be deleted from your BlackBerry.

I havent had any issues or quirks with mail delivery using my google apps domains. Everything works as expected except for the minor syncing issues.

That's the only thing that really kind of bugs me. I can't stand after receiving and reading 50+ emails that on my Blackberry they are still there and I have to go through them each manually to mark them as read.

The BlackBerry lets you delete or "mark opened" any items you want. You can do it in bulk too so you can delete or mark all messages before a certain point. It's really not that big of a deal.

How can you mark read in bulk?

Do you own a BlackBerry? Being a bit smart ass, yes, but I also want you to be able to follow along.

When you are in the messages view the messages are arranged in chronological order with the newest appearing first. If you scroll all the way to the top, there is a bar that goes across that has the date in it. Use your trackball to select that bar with the date then use the application key (to the left of the trackball) to bring up the menu. In that menu you have many options which include "Mark Prior Opened" and "Delete Prior".

Also, if you scroll down your list of messages, you will see a bar with a date in it for everyday going back as far as your messages. So if you wanted to delete all of last weeks messages from your BlackBerry simply scroll down to Saturday July 12th, hit the application key, and select Delete Prior.

I do own a Blackberry Yes

Thank you for the wise information. As long as I can get Push email I think I'm good to go.

In an attempt to avoid the frustration of the phone support process at Verizon, or the fee of calling RIM directly, I attempted Verizon's email support. My inquiry was:

I need to have my Google Apps domain xxxxxx.net' added to the database of push-enabled domains with RIM. Thanks

Their response was:

Dear XXXXXXX,

Thank you for contacting our Verizon Wireless website. We are happy to assist you with your question regarding Google Apps for your BlackBerry 8830.

We sincerely apologize for the delayed response. Due to an extremely high volume of customer email inquiries, the response time has been longer than expected. Verizon Wireless is committed to providing the very latest in products and services. Verizon Wireless does not provide support for the BlackBerry Maps application or 3rd party software that would be required to make full use of the 8830's GPS capabilities. As a result, the 8830's GPS functionality has not been enabled so that we are able to provide a standardized level of functionality and support for our advanced devices.

We are unable to state if or when additional GPS functionality will be enabled on the Verizon Wireless 8830. We understand and apologize for any frustration regarding this but we are only able to provide information regarding products or services that we are currently offering. We are unable to disclose any unconfirmed information because it would be subject to change and could raise expectations that may not be met.

If you would like to receive e-mail updates regarding new products and services, please click on "Sign up for email updates" from the "Support" tab located at the top of our Cell Phones, Cell Phone Plans, Cell Phone Accessories - Verizon Wireless homepage.

We hope you find this information helpful. Other troubleshooting tips and helpful product information can be found at (url removed). Should you feel your current concerns are not fully resolved, please reply back to this email or call us at 1-800-922-0204 and we will happily address them for you. We appreciate your business and thank you for choosing Verizon Wireless.

I do have the frustration with their GPS support that they mentioned, but it has nothing to do with my question. Quite amuzing.

It would be nice if RIM could add a web page to their site for submitting these google apps domains, and save everyone some hassle all around.

Wirelessly posted

You should have known better than to email about something like this. Even when you call theuy have no idea. Keep at it with the person on the phone from Verizon, eventually they'll call RIM.

I managed to get my blackberry setup Without paying the RIM fee. I got fed up with O2 UK support they were not very interested so I tried to do this from the web maintenance screen.

The idea is to get to the screen that lets you set your own settings, it worked for a .co.uk account but not for an eu one.

1) Setup GMail to allow for IMAP.

For this step use an email account that blackberry can not detect automatically.

2) Enter your email kname at yourdomain.co.uk
3) Enter an incorrect password (or correct one if this doesn't work)

It should go to processing, please wait. It will take a while but should come back asking you to change your password because it is incorrect or it can't detect the settings.

It will ask you to re-enter your email and password but there is an option for "I will provide the settings to add this email account."

From here you can set up your personal or work email

4) Select Personal then next
5) Select I will provide the settings ..... then select next
6) Enter the details

User name: name at yourgdomain.com
Password: ********
Email Server: imap.googlemail.com
Email address: name at yourgdomain.com

On Next it will work out the rest.

I have tried this direct on my phone too and it works as well. Hope this helps.