Gmail (for iPhone)

You can already use Gmail on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, so why would you want a standalone Gmail app from Google? Speed, better search functions, and color-coded threading are three possible answers.

The Gmail app for iOS (free, for iOS 4 and later) made by Google gives users another choice for managing email. It allows iPhone users to decide what they value in an email app. Do you value search capability over text displayed at readable sizes? Is it more important for your various email accounts to be managed in one app, as Mail arranges them, or would you rather have a dedicated app just for Gmail that looks more like Gmail on the web, with color-coded threading?

In short, the app does some things well, but it's largely a matter of preference whether it's right for you. One deciding factor may be that you can't log into multiple Gmail accounts at once. You have to sign in and out. Apple's Mail app, however, does support multiple Gmail accounts.

If you happened to snag the Gmail app ?when it was prematurely released on November 2?it was removed merely hours after its debut?you'll have to log out and log back in, or completely uninstall and reinstall the app to ensure you have the fully functioning new version of the app.

The new app for iOS 4 and later does have better search capabilities than the Mail app synchronized to your Gmail account, which is not a surprise, given that we're talking about Google, the first name in computer search.

Mail vs. Gmail
The Gmail app has a Facebookian design, in that a collapsible menu pane appears to the left of the central interface. Toggle the menu open, and it nudges its way into view, taking up not quite half of the screen real estate. Here, you can find the requisite Gmail folders, such as Important, Sent, and Drafts, as well as all the custom folders you've made. A new feature, the Priority Inbox, helps you tag and navigate to the most important messages. There's a menu listing for Chats, although it's not an active messaging service; it's just a folder (which appears in your Web-based Gmail account, too) where your chat dialogs are saved if you enable a setting). When you preview messages, the majority of text in the Gmail app appears in light gray type, indicating read messages. The only time you'll see bold or black is for unread mail. Compared to the bold, black lettering of cascading point sizes used in the Mail app, Gmail's text is much harder to read.

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Open a message, and each person on the thread appears in a different color, using the same color-coding scheme seen in the Gmail website. Whoever initiates a new email has their name in green; the first respondent shows up in purple; the third is red; and so on. The message itself is in whatever color text the sender uses (usually black, with blue for hyperlinks), although other information, such as the sender details in a forwarded message, appear in the harder-to-read light gray.

In terms of search performance, the Gmail app outperforms Mail easily, because it searches your entire mailbox, whereas the Mail app restricts you from searching beyond the folder that's open (usually, it's Inbox). The Mail app gives you results letter-by-letter as it finds matches, in part because it's only searching a limited subsection of your entire mailbox. Gmail waits until you've typed all your letters and hit "Search" before embarking on the hunt to match the terms anywhere in your mail.

Which Gmail iPhone App to Use?
Both the Gmail iOS app and the native Mail app connected to a Gmail account do a fine job of getting your messages to you when you're not in front of a full-sized computer. Which one you choose is largely a matter of preference, although I think the decisive factor for many people is that the Gmail app doesn't support multiple accounts simultaneously. If search is of the utmost essence, though, you'll definitely appreciate the Gmail app. The same goes for those who love color-coded threading in messages. If you've been happy to date with Mail's performance and appreciate larger type and bold fonts in your previews, however, there is no need to get used to a new interface.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touches already support Gmail very well. The new app from Google just adds another choice for how you can access it. Seeing as its free, why not load both and use the one that best suits your needs at the moment?

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