Gmail for Mobile Devices

When Gmail debuted on April 1st, 2004, it took the online world by storm. Its innovative Conversation View, which groups sent messages and replies into a simple-to-read thread, helped push the free, Web-based e-mail service into the same arena as Hotmail and Yahoo. It also urged those services to up the ante on mail storage capacity. Late 2005 saw the launch of Gmail for Mobile, which let users access their Gmail accounts through mobile phones, but this clunky, Conversation View-less application didn’t feel much like the Gmail that we had come to love.  Now, Google looks to make amends with its release of Gmail for Mobile Devices–and we have to say that it’s an all-around winner.

 

We received a pre-release version of Gmail for Mobile Devices loaded onto a Samsung A900M (available on the Sprint network). After opening the client and inputting a user name and password, we arrived at our Inbox, where we were treated to a screen reminiscent of Gmail’s layout, but without the links for Starred Items, Chats, Sent Items, and Labels. The top of the application sports the familiar Gmail logo and displays the number of unread messages.

 

We were pleased to see that Gmail for Mobile Devices utilizes conversation threading, much like its big brother. This is a huge improvement over the previous Gmail Mobile app, which listed sent and received messages individually. Opening a thread immediately takes you to the last e-mail exchanged, and it’s easy to view the other messages that came before it. If you click the tab that sits above the last thread entry, Gmail switches to a vertically tabbed perspective where you can open any of the previous e-mail. Unfortunately, there’s no Expand All option as found in the standard Gmail Web application, but with Google’s history of steadily updating its products, we suspect that this will be an option in the not-too-distant future.

 

The layout of an open e-mail is clean and well formatted, and the text is easy to read. JPEG attachments looked great, as did Word documents, which maintained their formatting. Another plus: Gmail for Mobile Devices automatically syncs with your standard Gmail account, so if you view, tag, or delete a message on your phone, it will be marked as such the next time you access Gmail from your computer.

 

A number of keypad shortcuts are provided to make the application suited for mobile use. For example, pressing “2” takes you to the Compose E-mail screen. From there, you can press any button to access your address book, where you can view a full list of names to click on. At the top of the screen is a handy contact search box that will return names with each keystroke. The “4” key takes you to the Reply screen, where you can respond to an e-mail or add a CC or BCC.

 

Hitting the Menu key opens an array of options found in the standard Gmail Web application, such as Reply, Reply All, Forward, and Compose; you can even Star and Archive messages, and report a message or conversation as spam. And what Google app would be complete without a search function? In an attempt to find a friend’s housewarming invitation, we keyed in her name, hit the Search key, and seconds later, the address was presented to us. Everything was smooth and felt similar to the standard Gmail service.

 

Gmailers who were dissatisfied with the Big G’s previous mobile e-mail offering will drool over Gmail for Mobile Devices. It can be downloaded for free by visiting http://gmail.com/app on your mobile (or by going to http://mobile.google.com on a computer and entering your phone number–a download URL will be sent to your phone via text message). Although it only runs on Java-enabled phones, this is a must-have application for anyone who wants to access e-mail when away from a notebook.

 

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