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Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch
- sidwyn 15y agoInteresting how they decided to copy the sliding panels from Facebook for iPhone. I wonder if it will become a standard on iOS.
- cwilson 15y agoI've overheard lots of discussion from iOS developers lately on this becoming a new trend. As certain apps increase in complexity the old Facebook home screen style becomes much less scalable, and this new method seems to be the answer. My guess is we'll see at least another half dozen popular apps take on this style as well.
- Pewpewarrows 15y agoFor us users that don't own an iOS device, what is this sliding panel effect you're discussing?
- mcdavis 15y agoWhen you click an icon for the menu, the entire page you're on currently slides to the right to expose a panel of menu options. See here: http://a1.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/119/Purple/eb/62/0a/mzl.uvhmahke.320x480-75.jpg http://a1.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/119/Purple/eb/62/0a/mzl.uvhm...
- daniel02216 15y agoOn the blog post, check out the image labeled 'Swipe right to view labels'. Also, it's Facebook for iPhone's profile picture: https://www.facebook.com/iphone https://www.facebook.com/iphone
- OiNutter 15y agoYeah, would be a nice UI feature if it didn't cut off some of the labels, including Google's own "Important and unread" (at least I think it's that, the end is cut off...) Think I'll just keep this app around for those odd times when I have to find an email from a week ago.
- gte910h 15y agoIt's certainly more like menus on the iPad than typical iPhone apps. Not sure I dislike it.
- chaz 15y agoDidn't Twitter for iPad use this before Facebook?
- Inufu 15y agothe reddit iPad app has also used that for a looong time
- ropiku 15y agoIt doesn't look like it supports multiple accounts unlike the web app
- edgeman27 15y agoDoesn't seem to support multiple accounts - back to Mail.
- pilif 15y agoAside of the fact that the app displayed an error message at first launch ("Notification error" - "no valid 'aps-environment' entitlement string found for application" - how did this pass review?), it a) doesn't support multiple accounts, b) is very laggy to use when you compare this to, say, the android version and c) feels like another one of these "let's embed the website above a little native toolbar"-apps Because Safari gets to JIT-compile JavaScript and UIWebView embedded into apps can't, this actually feels slower than the website (~0.5 seconds between clicking on a message and seeing it load? really?) I really think I'll move back to using their Exchange-Sync for push together with the standard web shortcut for mail management as this is faster and supports multiple accounts. (edit) On a related note: Doing these "let's add a native toolbar to my website and publish this in the AppStore"-apps feels nearly as stupid as when everybody felt the need to add flash intros to their website. There's next to no additional value (especially with the currently broken push) provided by such a half-assed pseudo-native app. This does nothing but hurt both native development (by leaving a bad impression on what's possible with native apps) and the open web (by making people believe that a website is not good enough)
- coob 15y ago> Because Safari gets to JIT-compile JavaScript and UIWebView embedded into apps can't I'm not sure this is still the case in iOS5.
- pilif 15y agoit is. They could only fix it for the homescreen links which also didn't get the JIT before iOS5 Having a JIT requires you to execute writable memory which is a privilege given on a per-process level. So for an embedded webview to be able to do it, your app would need it, but third party apps are never allowed this. It's possible that they changed UIWebView to spawn a background process for the actual rendering, but I guess we would have heard about that (we haven't we only heard about homescreen links now being JITed)
- xtacy 15y agoWould you need executable and writable at the same time? The JIT generates code into a writable+non-executable memory, and then makes it readonly+executable.
- scottschulthess 15y agoI don't see it in the app store, unfortunately. Edit: for me, the only way to get it is to download in iTunes and then sync
- lancefisher 15y agoI couldn't find it in the app store either, but I followed the link in the article on my phone and it opened the install screen for me.
- doomie 15y agoIncredibly, this app is slower than using their mobile website. Nicely done!
- phoboslab 15y agoApparently not available in Germany. The AppStore search function only finds third party apps and the AppStore link from the blog post opens the AppStore and shows the unhelpful error message "Your request could not be completed".
- thirdsun 15y agoI hope the reason for this is that the german store just hasn't been updated yet. If they on the other hand can't release it here because of the name GMail, which Google had some legal trouble with here in Germany, it would be a big letdown and a kind of poor decision by Google.
- bmj 15y agoAlso not available for me, in the U.S., browsing the app store from my iPod Touch.
- martingordon 15y agoThe app is so bad it sounds like they're saying: "If you really want a great native Gmail experience, switch to Android." Like Gruber said on The Talk Show recently (and I'll probably be downvoted given how unpopular he is here): Apple gets people to upgrade their phones by making them love their current one; Android makers get people to upgrade their phones by making them hate their current one. Seems like the strategy continues to holds true here...
- danso 15y agoThat's a little too cynical for me, and runs counter to Google's very origins (not to say that the managers and execs in charge of today's Google may have diverged from that): http://bit.ly/uvHu5n http://bit.ly/uvHu5n "[Excite CEO] Bell was visibly upset. The Stanford [Google] product was too good. If Excite were to host a search engine that instantly gave people information they sought, he explained, the users would leave the site instantly.
- frou_dh 15y agoThat love thing is typically gushing and odd. I like my iPhone 3G, but it's annoyance at no longer receiving security updates, and lack of iCloud support, that would make me spend money to upgrade. Not love.
- johndbritton 15y agoAbout time.
- ryan_s 15y agoI guess I fail to see the point of using this app. For me the mail.app and active sync have been working great. I get push, I can attach files, etc. Other than better searching, and different management I don't know why this would be better.
- bonaldi 15y agoShows exactly how far apart the distance between native apps and web apps really is. People were impressed with the GMail web app when it launched; this is basically a skin around that same app and they're recoiling from it in horror.
- krookoo 15y agoWhat are you saying? web apps are better or native apps?
- masklinn 15y agoThat people accept (bad) things from web applications they will never accept from a native application, I'm guessing. This would imply native applications generally being better than web applications, since the acceptability threshold is higher.
- tvon 15y agoThat native apps are better. People have lower expectations from web apps, e.g. it wasn't too long ago that GMail getting drag-and-drop attachment support was a big deal.
- alexmuller 15y agoI guess it's about expectations. As a web app, people might expect a slight delay when tapping. But a native app should be responding instantly to taps (like the rest of iOS does), and this doesn't cut it.
- falling 15y agoWhen it launched, the mobile Gmail app was great. Unfortunately they decided to break scrolling by poorly reimplementing it in JS and it's all downhill since then.
- euroclydon 15y agoYesterday there was a google team blog post about the new gmail interface. I went there (the blog) in my iPad and there were no scrollbars and accelerated flick to scroll didn't work at all. It definitely felt weird to have no accelerated scroll.
- highwind81 15y agoHere's the link to the app in the appstore: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail/id422689480?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail/id422689480?mt=8
- falling 15y agoI'm baffled that Google, of all companies, can't make a decent mobile web app. The first Gmail versions from years ago on the iPhone were beautiful and they degrade with every new version.
- nyrb 15y agoI was hoping to see the native Gmail app that can support multiple accounts, but it is currently not. Oh well. I'll stick with Mail for now. It look like the native Gmail itself is a browser and navigate to Gmail Mobile website. Thus is the reason why the native app only can hold one account at a time.
- timjahn 15y agoMultiple accounts is definitely a deal breaker for me. I'm surprised they didn't implement that out of the gate.
- Lewisham 15y agoI'll echo other comments here that this looks like it needs a bit more work. * Notification error on startup: ridiculous * Laggy scrolling (how?) * No support for Send As, which is actually what is really missing from the iPhone Mail app. It's almost there. It needs a bit more love.
- grandalf 15y agoalso multiple google accounts signed in at once would be nice (and would allow me to stop using mail.app)
- kyleslattery 15y agoThe laggy scrolling is likely because they're not using native scrolling, but rather using the same JS based scrolling they use in the web app to overcome issues with iOS 4's support for fixed CSS positioning. However, since the toolbar is native in the app, they should just use native scrolling.
- daniel02216 15y agoYou can get send as if you use Google Sync (gmail over exchange instead of imap) and enable the send as setting in their control panel. You can also do it over IMAP by copying and pasting a comma into the account field and adding another email address, I think. You may also have to use the SMTP server with alternate credentials.
- gte910h 15y agoCan't swap to another account. At all. Edit: There is a switch in settings to do it... Doesn't work with GAFYD accounts...
- digitalclubb 15y agoSearching for mail or finding 'labelled' archived content on the default mail client was a real pain and this app answers those questions but as previously mentioned.. No multiple accounts? I have several Gmail accounts that I need to manage on the fly, and it is indeed quite 'laggy' when you have images or heavy content in the email body (which it doesn't scale down!) All in all, it's a step in the right direction and about time this app came to market - let's just hope they resolve the issues and tweak the overall user experience.
- alexknowshtml 15y agosigh they (poorly) lifted functionality, all the way down to cache clearing in the app settings, from http://usemailroom.com http://usemailroom.com. Between that and the Facebook navigation, this app is more stolen than it is crappy.
- tvon 15y agoIt feels like the mobile web client.
- ceejayoz 15y agoIt is the mobile web client, only slower.
- paolomaffei 15y agoAny good alternatives so?
- mvkel 15y agoSuper disappointing that it's just a native wrapper around a web interface. They had a chance to kill it with this app and they didn't reach very far.
- mitjak 15y agoAll the more puzzling is that they waited so long to do it. There has always been dissatisfaction with Mail.app but it's taken them 3+ years since the launch of the iPhone SDK to come up with a half-assed wrapper around a website that performs more poorly than running it in WebKit.
- thought_alarm 15y agoWhen I want to remind myself of what it's like to use a non-iOS device, I'll open up this Gmail app.
- joelanman 15y agoBut the gmail app on Android is excellent, and nothing like this?
- joshu 15y agoThat blog post breaks scrolling behavior on iPad and iPhone. Amazing.
- helloimben 15y agoI tried downloading it just now- says the app is "no longer available."
- sambeau 15y agothey pulled ti due to the notification bug: https://twitter.com/#!/jdalrymple/status/131795707295309824 https://twitter.com/#!/jdalrymple/status/131795707295309824
- iradik 15y agoI just got a message saying the item I tried to buy is no longer available.
- rglover 15y agoLooks like they removed it from the App Store: "Update: 11/2/11: Earlier today we launched a new Gmail app for iOS. Unfortunately, it contained a bug which broke notifications and caused users to see an error message when first opening the app. We’ve removed the app while we correct the problem, and we’re working to bring you a new version soon. Everyone who’s already installed the app can continue to use it."
- dendory 15y agoI've always been very satisfied with the iPhone mail app personally.
- jamesgagan 15y agoannnd...it's been yanked already, according to thenextweb: http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/11/02/google-pulls-gmail-app-for-ios-citing-notification-issues http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/11/02/google-pulls-gmail-a...
- jimbrock 15y agoNot terrible but not at all great, either.
- bejar37 15y agoHa. Seems like it was pulled from the app store (Probably because of the push bug). Nicely done.
- simon_weber 15y agoThey have officially pulled it and are working on a fix. Check the update on the blog post.
- OoTheNigerian 15y agoYesterday, when I asked people not to get too excited about the iPhone GMAIL app and I was downvoted into oblivion. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3180049 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3180049 The I maintain that the Android version is really unstable (take a look at the app store review page). Google is just too big to move at the pace required for so many products it has.
- smackfu 15y agoSo, if Google is supposed to only be hiring A people, who is making all these crummy iOS apps?
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoGoogle hires the type of people who want to solve hard engineering problems, not the type of people who want to really polish an app.
- kbanman 15y agoThing is, this app isn't just unpolished. They threw up this excuse for a native app to avoid engineering a real one.
- rimantas 15y agoFloppy disk icon for „Save“? I guess GMail alreadh has users who never had that thing in their hands…
- robk 15y agoAll those that ridicule Google's product quality on iOS have never tried to use iTunes on Windows! And given that lots of Googlers have iPhones, it's hard to ascribe malice when just incompetence will suffice.
- madhancr 15y agoGoogle, hire some Mac/iPhone developers to do the job. This is what happens if you hire 'generalist' and reject Mac developers by asking some scaling and data center questions.
- dabeeeenster 15y agoCan anyone explain if/how this app downloads mail in the background? I thought that wasn't possible using the current iOS API?
- extension 15y agoYa know, a web page announcing your iPhone app should really be viewable on an iPhone. This one refuses to scroll at all.
- mdonahoe 15y agoiTunes error: "Not available in US store"