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Comment by ugh | Hacker News Reader

Why is an extra app necessary? Is this only about bringing a different UI to the table compared to the default Mail app? What am I missing?

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As someone who used Android (with GMail) for a few years and recently switched to iPhone, it's painful to lose archiving, labels, starring, priority inbox, complete thread history and a good search. Additionally, the UI for threading GMail has is much better than the native app.

(Mail allows you to archive. Starring works, too. Labels map to folders, depending on how you use them that might be good enough or not. Search is pretty great with iOS5, not sure what Gmail is doing better there. From what I remember Gmail’s search has always been pretty horrible. Maybe that has changed.)

I can understand why you might want the priority inbox. That, however, doesn’t seem like a very big deal to me.

There's a difference between being able to do something, and being able to do it with one click.

That depends on how exactly you use something, does it not? If you rarely use something but it takes up space all the time then that’s a problem, especially on a phone.

While you're asserting that it's not so useful to you, at the same time you're hinting at why others may appreciate it (if they use it frequently).

Search is great with iOS for the messages you already have, but it doesn't work at all for "continue search on the server". If the Gmail app fixes that, it's a major feature.

“Continue search on server” works for me, although it is slow and the UI is clunky: I have to first navigate to the All Mail, then search for something, then click “Continue search”. I’m sure this would be much easier in a native Gmail app for iOS.

Starring works? I don't think opening a message and then moving it to the "starred" folder works. The android app allows you to star directly from the message list.

The great thing is that if people want a minimal mail app, Mail will be their choice. I just want a choice that allows me to use my preferred workflow.

It didn’t work before iOS5. Now you can flag emails directly – which in turn stars them.

Don't forget attachments, for me it's a real dealbreaker that you can't attach files to an email message on iOS (due to the security model limitations). Unfortunately a native app isn't going to solve this.

Of course you can attach files, but you need to do it from the app that contains the file.

The Android app has its own fair share of troubles though. It's not very good in actually receiving the email. The email it gets is fine, otherwise though it has to "sync" everything. I can't just turn on email syncing and get my emails in a PUSH way, it's still delayed. When I press update it generally takes 1-2 minutes over 3G to actually update.

Check, if the Settings | Accounts and Sync | your gmail account | Sync Gmail setting is turned on. If it is, the Android app has no problem with push email. It has worked for me since G1.

I'm so dependent on Gmail-specific features that aren't in The mail app that I use the Gmail mobile web interface exclusively, despite the drastically decreased responsiveness from using a web app. This will be a breath of fresh air.

Such as? (honest qusetion)

Priority inbox, stars etc

Labeling, search, archive vs. delete.

What I gleaned from the article is that the author wants push notifications from gmail. That doesn't appeal to me, email is not a phonecall. It shouldn't be disruptive. I want to get emails when I have time to check them.

You can already get push notifications (via mail) - http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/.

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