This article clarifies the distinctions between Microsoft's various providers and the protocols Nylas uses for connection.
Provider Differences
The provider name in Nylas's platform largely corresponds to the account's hosting environment and authentication method.
| Provider | Account Type | Authentication |
|---|---|---|
| Outlook | Consumer-grade accounts (e.g., outlook.com, hotmail.com). |
Basic Authentication (username & password). |
| Exchange | On-Premises corporate mail servers. | Basic Authentication. |
| Office 365 | Hosted corporate mailboxes in Microsoft's cloud (part of the Microsoft 365 suite). | OAuth 2.0 (recommended, modern authentication). |
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Protocol Differences
Nylas uses different protocols to connect to these providers, depending on the account type and the requested scopes.
- EAS (Exchange ActiveSync): An older protocol for syncing email, calendar, and contacts. At Nylas, it was our initial protocol for all Microsoft accounts.
- EWS (Exchange Web Services): A more robust protocol for email and calendar. Many connections use EWS. If an account requires contacts scope in addition to email or calendar, a combination of EWS and EAS might be used.
- Graph (Microsoft Graph API): The modern, unified API for all Microsoft 365 data. The Graph protocol is the future of Microsoft integrations and is primarily used for calendar-only accounts within the Office 365 provider.
In short, the provider determines the host and authentication type, while the protocol is the technical method Nylas uses to communicate with that host.
Resources:
Resources
https://developer.nylas.com/docs/developer-tools/api/supported-providers/
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