I want a Gmail widget on Gingerbread
One of the most ironic things about Android is the official Gmail app. You have an official app from the company that made the OS as customizable and widget-friendly as it is, and yet there's no official widget for it unless you run Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich. Problem is, I don't want Ice Cream Sandwich on my Galaxy S II. I think it's a huge step in the wrong direction for Android, if nothing else because some of the software I use outright won't work on ICS.
Of course it's a bit backwards to complain that Google isn't updating a technically outdates OS anymore, but I never quite got why there hasn't been a widget for Gmail since day one. It's such an obvious feature to have, and from a consumer point of view anyways, it makes no sense why there isn't one.
There are of course third party widgets, but nothing that really works perfectly. What prompted me to write this to begin with was a widget called Gmail Widgets. It promises a lot of things in its description, like being similar to the official one on new versionof Android, but available on older versions of Android and "offer more options". By more options the developer apparently means themes and custom icons, while the widgets themselves don't even have the capability to jump to an email directly – only open Gmail normally. API issues outside of the dev's control I assume, but still, not the most honest app description I've seen.
I think it's a pity that an OS that can do so much is missing something this basic. I guess I will have to go ICS eventually, but for the sake of those that don't even have that option, I do wish Google would bring widgets to older versions as a token of good faith. In the mean time, I'll continue my search for a decent third party widget. If anyone has any tips, that would be appreciated.
