San Francisco — Barely two months back, Google separated its Gmail application from its core Android OS, allowing it to update the program without relying on a full system. And of late, the global search engine leader Google has announced that the mobile web version of its Gmail for Android and iPhone is now localizations has been expanded to 44 languages in total.
There is nothing especially innovative about the updates to Google’s Gmail app for Android, but one of the greatest benefits of toting a phone that operates on Google’s OS is taking advantage of Google products’ optimal performance on the device. Such is the case with the newly updated Gmail for Android, which comes with “a bunch of updates based on your feedback…that email geeks will love and the rest of the world maybe slightly nod at, if that.”
The mobile enhancements now unfurls a feature set closer to the desktop version, allowing users to take advantage of latest features such as search, starring, labels and threaded conversation. The update also brings offline support, and smart links for Google Maps, YouTube and Google Docs content.
The changes bring the Android app closer to feature parity with the desktop browser version of Google’s flagship email product. First, Gmail’s popular and useful Priority Inbox is now included in the app. Priority Inbox view on your Android device includes all of the messages deemed important, regardless of whether or not they have been read; you can archive messages, delete, or mark them unimportant. You can also set up notifications for your Priority Inbox; configure your phone to vibrate or ring in the settings menu.
Google has also included some new features in mobile web Gmail, like smart links, offline support, and the ability to add and remove labels. The app also allows users to specify the account from which they want to send/reply if they manage multiple accounts with their Gmail. Google’s blog post on the new release points out, “If you moved to Gmail from another webmail provider and want to continue to send email from that address, now you can send from any address you have configured in the desktop version of Gmail.”
Here is the complete alphabetical list of the languages that mobile web Gmail is now supporting:
Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK and American), Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian (Bokmal), Polish, Portuguese (for both Portugal and Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish (for both Spain and Latin America), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese.
To enjoy the new HTML5 Gmail webapp on your iPhone you need to have at least iOS 2.2.1. and above, or handsets running any version of Android. The Google Mobile Blog has several screen-shots of the new UI, including the reply to all integration and inline replies.
The app is only available for Android 2.2 and you can get it (if you were not already updated automatically) by scanning this QR code from your phone.