How Does Email Get Delivered?

When you press send, your email program hands the message to your provider's outgoing server using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. That server checks the part of the address after the @ sign and queries the Domain Name System for the recipient's mail exchange (MX) record. It then connects to the recipient's server and transfers the message, often in seconds. The recipient's server stores it until their app downloads or syncs it using protocols such as IMAP or POP3. Along the way, spam filters and authentication checks such as SPF and DKIM help block forged messages.