The Gmail app for iPhone and iPad: version 2.0 | Hacker News Reader

The Gmail app for iPhone and iPad: version 2.0

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I was kind of hoping they'd put some more effort into Sparrow after acquiring it. Even without push support: I still personally prefer that UI. I have noticed a few minor bug fixes it being released so it doesn't seem like it is completely forgotten.

Still, I'll give Gmail 2.0 a go for a week to see how I like it. Who knows? I may change my mind.

As an Android user it's disheartening to see that the best mobile GMail app is available for iOS only.

As an Android user that recently downgraded from 4.0 to 2.3, it is frankly infuriating: you can only get the latest GMail app for Android if you are on 3.0+, which leaves the vast majority of Android users stuck with what is now a 4th rate app.

> As an Android user that recently downgraded from 4.0 to 2.3, it is frankly infuriating: you can only get the latest GMail app for Android if you are on 3.0+, which leaves the vast majority of Android users stuck with what is now a 4th rate app.

As of this Thursday, Gingerbread is two years old. Why would you downgrade to such an old version? That's comparable to running iOS 4 on an iPhone 3GS. I got an iPhone in June, and I'm already being told that I can't upgrade several applications because I'm not running the latest version of iOS and on the latest iPhone.

Second of all, "vast majority" is a bit of a stretch. 55% are on Gingerbread and 15% on pre-Gingebread[1], but given that Android encompasses a lot of lower-end phones that are simply feature phones as well, that's not really comparable to an iOS, which is used exclusively for smartphones. Many of those users frankly won't care that they're not able to use the latest version of the Gmail application - in fact, they may not be using it at all to begin with.

> Android users stuck with what is now a 4th rate app.

This is a secondary point of yours, but I should add that I don't consider even the Froyo version of Gmail to be a 4th rate app, let alone Gingerbread or beyond. I can name several ways that the Android app outperforms the iOS Gmail app.

[1] http://www.tmonews.com/2012/10/google-releases-october-distr...

I was curious about statistics regarding devices 'in the field,' and all I could find were these figures from Google such as the ones you cite (55% on Gingerbread, 15% pre-Gingerbread), which I think should be tied to a very important measuring detail—they are percentages of Android OS versions hitting the Play Store during a two week period.

I think this is a deliberate choice of reporting statistic to make the Android device world look more modern. They could report on a number of other metrics[0], but from my observation, non-power users aren't frequenting app stores—perhaps they'll download apps a few times when the device is new, but after a while their phone is as customized as it's going to get. This issue is likely compounded after a few times of hearing about some app to try, and finding that it doesn't run on the dated OS.

Basically, I think there are loads of older Android installs in the wild, whose owners aren't going to the Play Store as often as people who just bought a new phone or tablet.

[0] I think something like access to Gmail via Android would be a better representation of the real market, and that figure is likely measured within Google. If not, it could be. I doubt the numbers would be very flattering... even the Play Store access metrics aren't so great to begin with.

> Why would you downgrade to such an old version?

My phone broke mid-contract (but out of warranty) and while there are a lot of very affordable Android phones, none of them are running anything resembling a recent version of Android. It's not really comparable to running iOS 4 on an iPhone 3GS, as my phone is brand new and was only released a few months ago.

That's a huge plus of iOS being a developer, you can safely target year old releases without a problem.

> That's a huge plus of iOS being a developer, you can safely target year old releases without a problem.

I'd say the big plus is that you can safely target only the newer releases without a problem, because power users just rush out and buy the newest iPhone when it comes out.

I got an iPhone 4S in June, and I'm already getting told that I can't upgrade certain applications because I'm not running iOS6 on an iPhone 5.

>I'd say the big plus is that you can safely target only the newer releases without a problem, because power users just rush out and buy the newest iPhone when it comes out.

Even more than that, the adoption rate for users on existing devices is just incredible.

So new devices with the newest version of the OS sell like hotcakes, existing users upgrade like crazy, and Apple pushes new version quite far backwards across those existing devices to boot.

> I got an iPhone 4S in June, and I'm already getting told that I can't upgrade certain applications because I'm not running iOS6 on an iPhone 5.

Which apps require an iPhone 5? I think this is technically possible by submitting an armv7s-only binary, but I don't see why anyone would do that. Except maybe to sell "I am rich 2".

Requiring iOS6 I can understand, because for phone-only apps, you can target almost the same devices as with iOS5 (minus iPod 3G and people who do not want to update, for e.g. performance reasons).

I'm getting "The item you tried to buy is no longer available." when I try to update.

Lifehacker say [1] that it's Apple having pulled the update for some reason. No idea if that's true, but...

EDIT: They changed their tune to just "there must be a lot of traffic for this update".

[1]: http://lifehacker.com/5965550/gmail-for-ios-gets-a-completel...

Workaround: delete the app from your iTunes library first, then download the 'clean' version of 2.0 rather than the update.

[edit] Direct Link: https://itunes.apple.com/app/gmail/id422689480

How do you get to the 2.0 version? I'm not finding it via searching the app store. (I do however, find dozens of various gmail related crapware.)

Edit: tried the link above and still get the same error (and I've never installed it before, so this should be a fresh install).

I had the same problem. I found it by searching for this string exactly: "Gmail email from Google"

The built-in updates notification item didn't work, but searching your phrase, finding the item, and then trying "Update" did work.

I went to the direct link without deleting the old app, and it worked for me.

Thanks. This worked for me.

This worked for me as well.

I never even had the original... Getting this message.

edit: 2 minutes later, can't even find the app on the app store.

I removed it from my device to try a fresh install, but can't find it in the App Store at all.

That's because App Store search is extremely lame and in need of as major overhaul.

you have to use the direct link

https://itunes.apple.com/app/gmail/id422689480

obviously a search for gmail should work, but as you discovered, it doesn't, unless Apple have fixed it by now.

Search for Google > Open the result for the search app > click related > scroll right in "also by Google" and it's in there. Sheesh, Apple.

same :/

I'm getting the same thing.

Just got it updated from the App Store app on iPad, it shows up in search results again too so I think thing have stabilized now.

Does anyone know if this is a native app, html5 app, or a hybrid of the two? I could have sworn that the previous version of this app was at least partially done in HTML5 because of the way the ui would re-render itself occasionally.

Hybrid. You can select UI text everywhere from the message chrome to the settings page, so there's definitely HTML 5. But other parts are definitely native, like the label and account lists.

Looks native to me, sort of similar to the Google+ app.

No unified inbox though. And push notifications still don't work for me (what am I doing wrong?)

I had to go enable them in ios settings for them to show up

So there is definitely no unified inbox? That to me is a deal breaker. I couldn't tell from playing around with it if I was somehow missing a unified stream somewhere.

I'm pretty sure it's still a hybrid app, native shell with HTML for the ui, at least the inbox and mail content area are full of HTML.

The sliding out list, on the other hand, should be native code.

But overall speaking its much nicer than previous version, good job !

Just check the response time for clicking event. There's a short delay for HTML5 click (which is by design to differentiate click event and double-tap-to-zoom-in event).

My guess is that, at least the list of conversation is in HTML5 for sure. I though the message content would also be in HTML5 but it seems the "reply" icon responds very fast. Maybe some buttons were re-implemented using native code.

Pretty sure it's native, app size is too large to just be a viewer.

I don't know, but either way it's much snappier.

Wow, I like Google, I worked there for a while, sadly this is not a shining example of "Googliness".

Let's count the challenges shall we?

1) If you happen to click the link for Version 2.0 in the Chrome browser running on an iPad it gives you a blank screen.

2) If you happen to click on the link in the Safari browser it gives you the download page but the App store says "This App is no longer available"

3) If you read the announcement all you see are iPhone screen shots, which makes me wonder if "iPad support" consists of a "2X" in the corner of the screen like it does on the Google Voice app. Gee, That lets me use 16 pixels on my retina display to show one pixel in your App, I'm so thrilled.

Ok that last bit was a pretty snarky, the snark comes from my massive disappointment at how unbelievably bad Google has been at dealing with the existence of tablets. Have you tried to use Google Docs on a tablet? Gmail? Reader? Every product they own has the "mobile" version which assumes you can hit every button with your thumb, or the "desktop" version which assumes you've got a keyboard and 5 button mouse under your fingers. Hello, its been years.

Here is hoping that when they actually put Gmail 2.0 back into the App store it is useful on iPads. I've got $10 - $20 for the right email client for the iPad, anyone want that money?

How are these Google's problems? These are all Apple screwing up the update. The direct link provided in many of the comments still works

https://itunes.apple.com/app/gmail/id422689480?mt=8

click this and don't worry, the iPad app isn't an iPhone app with 2X.

Ok, just clicked that exact link with my iPad and once I authenticate with Apple it says "the item you tried to buy is no longer available"

My rant however is that Google, in general, hasn't made strong product offerings out of their core products for the tablet experience. I could see not investing initially when it was unclear if tablets were a fad or not but it is now well past the point where people should be arguing that they are 'just a fad' (I don't know that anyone does any more, just saying that if they did, it would be silly) and Google can (and has) executed really well in the past in response to things that could be solved by pushing out more ECMAscript code to the web site. I really wish that selector at the bottom of the web interface to gmail was "Mobile * Tablet * Desktop" not just "Mobile * Desktop"

Gmail is great on Android tablets.

There might be an overarching desire to not make the Gmail experience too good on the iPad.

Yeah, that'll win over those iPad users! :)

I don't understand why iOS users feel so entitled to support from competitors' services. I don't see Apple making Android apps for iTunes, iMessage, or FaceTime (which Apple claimed it would make an "open standard").

And remember that this is a matter of perspective. The lack of good support for Google services on iOS is a good thing for me - it'll increase the number of people using Android, thus hopefully getting me better Android apps for my phone and tablet.

I don't think they do at all. Most of Google's core services are built on top of standards like SMTP, IMAP, CalDAV, Jabber, etc, so they can be consumed by any device.

Apple is the one writing most of the extra code here because they want to make sure Google's services run smoothly on their platform.

While we joke about how crappy it is now, Apple's iTunes for Windows was a good example of playing nice on a competitors platform in an attempt to impress their customers and bring them to your side. It worked.

Google's business is 'harvesting & indexing personal information' so they kinda need to support iOS.

Well yeah, I'm not quite convinced that it's a winning strategy (or even what Google are doing). But personally, I can never go back to iOS from Android because of the integration with Google products- Gmail, Maps, etc.

You can stop using those products.. that's one way out.

Right, but I don't want to. It's nowhere near worth dropping all of those things just go back to iOS.

Not trying to change your mind, but I personally have a strong distaste for being tied to one product because I use another (unrelated product). It's the reason why I've never bought a song or movie on iTunes. I was where you are a while back with Google products, but email is just email. I don't want my phone purchases to be influenced by what email provider I use; that's just silly. I'm currently using Outlook.com and couldn't be happier with it.

This is not quite right.

Gmail isn't great on any Android device. If you have only used Android, it might seem great. But after you try the built-in iOS client, your standards will raise a bit (not intending to offend!).

In my experience, nothing that Google has produced for the mobile platform(s) is great.

Seriously? You think the iOS mail client is better than the Android Gmail client? Because... it just isn't. For me, anyway. Each to their own.

Of course Google has made great things for mobile. Maps are unparalleled. Google Now is fantastic. The Google+ apps are actually fantastic, it's just that no-one is using them.

What about the Gmail app that is available to everyone that is on ICS and greater ?

A bunch of screen shots included in the link, tablet view as well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

Couldn't you say the same thing about Apple? Almost every one of their apps is bested by some third party app.

Is there any serious mail (not GMail) client for iOS except for Apple's own and Sparrow? And it's hard for me to invest in Sparrow now.

Wow, bold words, not even Maps?

Two of your three problems are related to Apple's infrastructure and are not under Google's control.

The first one seems to be a problem with third-party browsers getting redirected to the app store. I've noticed it with iCab Mobile (my usual browser on my iPad) as well.

The update was listed as available in the normal "Updates" section of iphone app store. When I went to update it through there, it was instantly saying it's no longer available. It took manually searching for the app and then hammering on the retry button as the first 4 attempts failed. This is most defiantly looks like an apple problem.

I finally reinstalled now that they support multiple accounts - but really? No unified inbox? Sparrow still has a leg-up, in my opinion, despite being out of the dev cycle for a few months now.

I specifically don't want a unified inbox. For that you can simply use the regular iOS mail app. What I use gmail for is accounts that I want to keep separate, for consulting business and not get that intertwined with my personal email. What you see as a shortcoming is for me a feature.

someone always complains, but really, this is a great app. Google had a bit of a shake start with their gmail app, but now the suite of google apps, Drive, Gmail, Search, Voice Search, Goggles, YouTube, Chrome etc are all world-class. When Google Maps comes out I am sure that will be too.

It's not like you have to pick between the two even with the default Mail.app - you can browse one inbox at a time or select "all inboxes". I happen to like unified view 90% of the time, but for that other 10% it's literally two taps to view a single inbox at a time (back, select specific inbox).

Don't get me wrong - v2.0 is vastly better than the last version. I guess I just check multiple accounts frequently enough that the three taps it takes to switch inboxes is a bit of a drag.

It would be nice if iOS let users install multiple copies of an App (like gmail, instagram etc) for different accounts.

I wonder what the usage figures are on a unified inbox by Gmail users. I have multiple accounts, which I suspect puts me in a minority, and don't even want to use unified inbox.

They don't even have that for their web or Android clients - I doubt you'll see the iPhone client ever surpass those.

In what cases is unified inbox relevant ? I don't like to mix my personal emails with my work emails. Did sparrow make a clear distinction between which accounts the email was from ?

Good question! Given I work for Unified Inbox, my reply is more about the nature of a unified inbox that what Sparrow are doing.

So the reason I use a unified inbox is that I only have to login to one place. I can then choose (using the filters) what work I'm going to concentrate on - eg I might look at the support@ addresses, or my personal ones, or all the addresses of one company/project. It can take a while to learn the use the filters well so you're not presented with an overwhelming list of everything but I'd hate to go back to individual inboxes now :)

I have 5 email accounts for various side projects - one for all my personal emails, one for a blog that I run where I receive user submissions, one for a product I'm working on now that receives notifications of all new sign-ups and payments. Things like that.

I know Gmail lets me pull all those into one inbox with account importing, but there's a limit on those too. Maybe it's just time for me to simplify all my accounts :/

It's relevant for those who do not care about such delineations and find it more efficient or so. I like having the unified inbox for several reasons such as being able to get see a quick overview of my personal/university/work accounts and act relatively to them. Sometimes though I'll switch into one account alone.

i sort of get it, but I switch the tone of how I respond depending on which of my accounts the email is received. Its seems more troublesome to look through them all and try to figure out after the fact.

Both worlds (business / personal) merge anyway. So a Unified Inbox makes sense eventually. The key is to be in a position to set up individual filters that put you in command and control scenario across communication platforms and devices.

Does gmail web have a unified inbox? Not that I've seen. Why should the mobile client by Google have one.

Way better than the first version. Still missing things Sparrow is good at: 1. Send & Archive button/setting 2. Option for 'Delete' and 'Archive' on swiping an email in the inbox. 3. Hold to mark as read/unread for an email.

Agree. I havent been able to download the Gmail app yet but I always thought the swipe to be able to archive or delete was really useful. Send & Archive was great as well. I've been slowly looking for a new mail client on iphone lately because it seems like Sparrow is much slower to receive mail than the standard mail app.

So is this the fruit of their Sparrow acquisition? Or is this unrelated?

It appears to be unrelated. The lead Gmail iOS designer, Chanpory Rith, has been at Google working on this for most of the year. Not sure about the tech.

http://dribbble.com/shots/843203-Gmail-2-0-Multi-login

Of course, the blog post seriously breaks when viewed on an iPhone (and rotated from landscape to portrait) and breaks the back button. Lame.

Otherwise the app update looks pretty good.

Welp, two showstoppers for me over the native iOS mail. First, it looks like to check my mail I need to toggle between all my accounts. There is no unified inbox. Second, Priority Inbox is not supported beyond having a separate folder for "Important and Unread." On GMail proper, priority items go to the top and are marked accordingly, the Inbox unread count is the priority unread count, and hence I tend to leave non-priority items unread to get to inbox zero. So, iOS experience if you are a priority inbox user is completely broken unless I am missing something.

I wonder if they fixed the constant notification spam on this one.

Nope - it's still all or nothing. Hope you don't get much mail…

Well thanks for saving me time from installing this POS

They even send LOCAL notifications to override my notifications preferences for no notifications.

> You can now login to up to five Google Accounts

Why a limit as low as 5?

I think the real question is, why a limit at all?

I can understand a limit of 1: it means the software was not designed to handle more than one account. State gets conflated, the software goes awry, and all hell breaks loose.

But as soon as you support more than one, I can't see any reason to cap that at 5 - or any other number, for that matter.

Probably performance reasons on mobile. Past 5 large accounts the app probably starts to get slow

Perhaps they know that the fraction of users with > 5 accounts is so low that it's not worth the testing cost? If they say they support 200 accounts (as someone else suggested), they'll need to test that support, right?

ps, I have > 5 accounts, but I forward all of them to my main account, which has SMTP setup to be able to "Send As" any of those accounts. I'd imagine most users with > 5 accounts would be doing something like that already, making supporting > 5 accounts even less beneficial.

Do many people need more than that?

Do people need less than that?

Do people need exactly five?

I don't think there's anything they could do to make anyone happy. People who want more than five will complain. People who have one wonder why they need up to five.

You don't know, so why create something so low? I've got 4, I'm sure theres people with 5+, so why not give the ability to have 200? It was a serious question, not a dig. Is there some iOS API restriction on the amount of "pollers" per app you can have some something?

Why a limit as low as 200?

Disappointed that Google's own application doesn't support 2-step authentication and application specific password.

I don't know what you're talking about, I logged in using my password and OTP without any problems.

Don't all Google products support application specific passwords? Without built-in support for two-factor auth, it's cumbersome since you have to generate a password on your own, but anything with a password box works.

What do you mean ? I seemed like web login to me. I got asked for my username and password then my token.

I was asked for my normal password and not an application specific password.

That's the way 2-step auth works. If you have 2-step auth enabled, and the application supports 2-step it will prompt for your username, normal password, and a one-time token. If the application doesn't support 2-step you have to generate an application specific password (which is a random string). The application specific passwords are only for clients that don't support 2-step (like IMAP and XMPP clients).

Nice, it finally has multi account support, which was the big reason I was still using the mobile web version.

So did they just buy Sparrow to shutter it? Or for a talent grab? Why wouldn't they rebrand a full native app (that kicks ass too) and run with that?

Not taking anything from this, it's very nice too, but I would have preferred they left Sparrow alone if they didn't intend on using it at all going forward.

It's much nicer than the previous version. But still, why would you use it? The standard mail client along with Google Sync (Exchange) does the job quite good. I don't like having two apps for mailing and I'm sure many of you have a second mail account that is not Gmail (for Google Apps).

Search, Labels, Calendar and G+ integration, and the ability to choose which browser to open links in.

I'm sure you can sign into your Google Apps account in iOS Gmail, you can in every other Gmail.

But still, why would you use it? The standard mail client along with Google Sync (Exchange) does the job quite good.

I still can't find a way to have at the same time both push support and the ability to star/flag messages on the phone and have them starred in the browser.

Now they have support for multiple accounts, I'll be giving the Gmail app an in-depth try.

Edit: that said, if anyone does know how to set up starring and push support at the same time, I'm all ears!

Using the flag feature on my iPhone stars the email. I'm using the Exchange method of connecting to email.

Do you have push notifications turned on as well? For some reason it seems that I can't have both at the same time.

The lack of server-side search when using a Gmail account with iOS mail is a huge problem for me.

I set up Gmail on iOS as an Exchange account and server side searching works for me.

search and labels for me

Can't access the app in the app store.

After swiping right for hours, I have found that this is sadly only available in the US.

What I really liked about Sparrow was the "hold to mark as read/unread", tap title to see all emails in convo, swipe up/down for next/prev, and the unified inbox. If it has all those, I would consider it.

I couldn't find it in the app store but I did find it by click ing on one of the apps made by Google, then scrolled at the bottom and clicked on > Developer info and it was down the list.

It might be because it's not yet available to all in the App Store yet.

It happens to me some times when I submit an update of an app to the App Store. I get the update a few moments after receiving the "Ready for Sale" status from iTunes Connect but then my partner only got the update in the App Store a few hours later.

Why oh why must blogspot.com break the _back_ button, of all things?

Pretty good update, 3 gripes:

1 - No contacts, I know you can use native app, but I want them in gmail

2 - No groups, can't send a message to a group

3 - Autocapitalization turned on, overrides iOS settings

Conclusion, no better than native app.

Where is "Press for human support" button?

Right below the Buy Subscription button.

Is the Google+ integration as evident as the web client?

I really don't want the distraction of G+ inside my mobile clients.

Now I just have to wait for a jailbreak tweak so I can make this my default mail app on iPhone...

Looks great! Hope the Sparrow team they acquired will put out a new OSX app for Gmail soon.

They just "acquired" Sparrow because it was an app that used their infra-structure, but bypassed Google Ads completely (showing their own ads in the free version instead).

Uh, no.

I don't that will happen any time soon. If they do produce an app, they would cut revenues coming from advertising so I don't think it is in their interest. On mobile, the situation is different as mobile users expect to have features such as notifications, and offline browsing (I know the latter can be done using HTML 5 but users' mind is not yet at opening a browser when they know they are offline).

Huh? Gmail has an app - you're commenting on a thread about its 2.0 release.

Read what s/he said. There is lost ad revenue on a desktop mail client, so the parent is saying that it makes sense for Google to push the user to the web client. This doesn't work on mobile because the user has certain expectations of how mail works on mobile.

You got my point, thank you.

FWIW the last time I used Gmail from a webkit-based mobile browser it worked very nicely.

Now with this and Chrome for iPad. I think I prefer an ipad over an Android Tablet ;)

Still can't mark emails important or not important. Disappointed...

this app looks great, but there could be fewer clicks when it comes to account switching

Dear Google,

That's what you bought Sparrow for?

I really wish it had a "Mark all as read" button. Until then, I'll stick with Sparrow.

cant seem to update or re-download it!

If the update hasn't propagated your way still and you're getting an error try deleting it then reinstall using this link: https://itunes.apple.com/app/gmail/id422689480?mt=8

I am still getting a "The item you tried to buy is no longer available." error with this link. I've never installed the GMail app before.

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