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What's new with Gmail for mobile devices?
Just launched! An even faster way to get Gmail on the go.
We've been working to make Gmail for mobile devices even faster. Check out the new downloadable application that delivers the following features:
- Faster, more Gmail-like user experience Gmail for mobile devices is fast and easy to use, with the same functions and look and feel as Gmail on the web. Once installed on your mobile device, you're just a click or two away from the messages in your Gmail inbox.
- Automatic synchronization Your Gmail account stays synchronized whether you access it from your PC or your phone. Send an email from your mobile device and you'll find it in the 'Sent Mail' folder on your PC.
- Searching Gmail for mobile devices allows you to search through your entire Gmail archive in seconds. Simply click on the search menu option and input your query.
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BOTTOM LINE: I've running this app on my Motorola V551, and it is indeed pretty cool, much more complete than the WAP browser interface -- recommended!
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INCOMING MAIL ALERTS: The notable weakness of Google Mail for mobile is the lack of text message alerts of incoming email.
You can simply forward incoming email to the email-to-SMS gateway of your carrier, either all mail or selectively by means of a Filter, but that delivers much of the message to your phone, not just an alert. The plus is that you can see quite a bit of the email; the minus is that it can burn up multiple text messages for each forwarded email.
Arguably the best work-around for those with Cingular is to use your free Cingular MEdia email account just for the purpose of sending alerts, which are a single text message with as much body as will fit. Use a Google Mail Filter to select and forward messages for alerting to your Cingular MEdia email address, and configure the same criteria there (to minimize alerting on spam) to send the alert to your phone, Moving those alert forwards to the Deleted Items folder.
Another work-around is to forward (all or selected) email to a free Yahoo!, Hotmail, or AOL email account, which can send text alerts.
Hopefully Google will add Text Message Alert as a Filter criteria at some point in the future.