$hostname='{imap.gmail.com:993/imap/ssl}INBOX';
$username = 'mygmail@gmail.com';
$password = 'mypass';

/* try to connect */
$inbox = imap_open($hostname,$username,$password) or die('Cannot connect to Tiriyo: ' . imap_last_error());
$MB = imap_search($inbox,'UNSEEN');
$xcount($MB);
echo $x;

// https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7126229 [2017-10-22]
define('URL', 'imaps://imap.gmail.com');
define('PORT', 993);
define('USER', 'your.user@gmail.com');
define('PASS', 'your_Secret_Password');

if ($ch = curl_init()) {
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, URL);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PORT, PORT);

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USE_SSL, CURLUSESSL_ALL);

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERNAME, USER);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_PASSWORD, PASS);

    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);

    // set IMAP command
    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, 'STATUS INBOX (MESSAGES UNSEEN)');

    $res = curl_exec($ch);
    if (curl_errno($ch)) {
        echo 'CURL ERROR: ' . curl_error($ch);
    } else {
        echo trim($res);
    }
    echo PHP_EOL;

    curl_close($ch);
} else {
    die('Curl initialization failed.');
}

* STATUS "INBOX" (MESSAGES 2 UNSEEN 1)