At 121 Digital, we’re always looking for ways to make our digital experiences faster, smarter, and more reliable. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce our latest backend upgrade: the integration of Apache Solr to power IMAP mailbox searches across mobile devices.
Why We Made the Change
Email remains one of the most critical tools for our users, but searching through thousands of messages — especially on mobile — can be frustratingly slow. Traditional IMAP search protocols are functional but not optimised for the kind of speed and responsiveness modern users expect.
By introducing Apache Solr, a high-performance, enterprise-grade search platform, we’ve transformed how searches are processed behind the scenes. This change enables near-instant retrieval of emails, even for large mailboxes, while keeping the experience smooth and intuitive on mobile devices.
What This Means for You
Here’s what users can expect from the new Solr-powered search:
Blazing-fast results — Search queries now return results in milliseconds.
Optimised for mobile — Reduced server load and smarter indexing mean quicker response times on the go.
Smarter searching — Solr’s full-text search capabilities improve accuracy, ranking the most relevant results first.
Secure and reliable — The upgrade maintains all existing IMAP security protocols, ensuring your data remains safe.
Under the Hood: How It Works
Apache Solr indexes mailbox content — subjects, senders, recipients, attachments, and message bodies — into a fast-searching database. When you perform a search on your mobile client, Solr instantly returns matching results, instead of forcing the IMAP server to crawl through every email in real time. The result? A dramatically faster and more efficient experience.
What’s Next
This Solr rollout is just one of many performance improvements we have planned at 121 Digital. We’re committed to optimising every layer of our digital ecosystem — from backend systems to user interfaces — to deliver seamless, world-class experiences to our clients and their audiences.
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in digital performance and design.
