Gmail releases official iOS app
Two weeks ago, Gmail released the official Gmail app for iOS. Then they pulled it – mere hours later. Apparently the app had some bugs that were so critical that the app simply couldn’t be up there. Now the app is back, and hopefully to stay.
As an avid Gmail user myself I gave the free app a try, but I have to say I wasn’t impressed. The first thing I noticed was that unlike the native email app, Gmail online, and any other way of interacting with my account the app displayed emails in my inbox that I had specifically added filters for in order to archive without having in the inbox. Wth? The interface is also very…square. Doesn’t look iOS at all. Looks like the lite version of some HTML(not-5) app, in other words more like the Gmail web experience. Some people might like that, I don’t.
You do get more features with this app than the normal email app though, which I’m sure is going to make it worth it for some. This is naturally tailored to all the features in Gmail, rather than tied to them from a standard interface. Then again, simple things like access to filters is missing, there’s no indication of the state of your storage capacity, and no way to see a log of recently logged IPs – just to mention a few features that I’ve been known to use. The search is a lot better though – I always though the search function in the email app was a bit backwards, having to tell it to search all email and all fields every time instead of having that be the default.
All in all not a great app for me personally, but obviously your mileage might vary. The app is free, as most Google services are, so there’s no reason not to check it out if you use Gmail.
[iTunes via Engadget]
