The Iterative Web App: A new look for Gmail and Google mobile web apps

Tuesday, November 24, 2009 | 1:11 PM

On April 7th, we announced a new version of Gmail for mobile for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Among the improvements was a complete redesign of the web application's underlying code which allows us to more rapidly develop and release new features that users have been asking for, as explained in our first post. We'd like to introduce The Iterative Webapp, a series where we will continue to release features for Gmail for mobile. Today: A new look for our buttons and toolbars.

Some of you noticed and asked us about recent changes we made to Gmail for mobile and a few of our other mobile web apps. If you use the web browser to access Gmail, Latitude, Calendar, or Tasks on your Android-powered device or iPhone, you'll see that we freshened up the look of the buttons and toolbars.

We never want the buttons and toolbars of Google apps to compete with your content; rather, they should complement them. So the headers and buttons are now darker, to better show the content of your emails and calendar entries.

We also made the all the buttons a bit larger, for easier button-tapping.

To try these apps yourself, point your mobile browser to Gmail (gmail.com), Calendar (google.com/calendar), Latitude (google.com/latitude), Tasks (gmail.com/tasks), or just go to google.com from you phone and find all these web apps under the 'more' link.

Is this an improvement? Let us know what you think.

20 comments:

Niraj said...

Is there a way to access the app via other touch-friendly browsers like Opera Mobile? I'd guess the interface would work just as well in such browsers.

Pederson said...

BlackBerry (OS 4.5+) love coming soon, right Google? :)

metakeys said...

Definitely an improvement, thanks!

fyi: I delete way more than I archive - any chance on giving iPhone users the choice for swiping?

Denis said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Unknown said...

Those who are looking for offline access to Google Tasks should check out
GeeTasks app that I wrote.

Omnipresence Wired® said...

sometimes the smallest of differences are the biggest of all.

Cliff said...

is it really that hard to get some s60v5 support?

lowlight said...

Why do I still have to spoof an iPhone useragent on my Windows Mobile to get the proper version of Google Mobile web apps?

Windows Mobile browsers support it, why doesn't google just "allow" it to work?

Alexandre Brina said...

I am totally out of the bus w/ my S60, sad, so sad :(

Unknown said...

little change.

James said...

I noticed the change right away. The larger buttons are a huge improvement.

Benoit David said...

I too have to ask: what about Window Mobile??? I've seen apps (non-Java) with better UX for WM6, why not gMail?

Jorge R said...

Nice changes. Would LOVE to see them on my WebOS device! Any love for the Palm Pre and Pixi?

david alandí said...

symbian s60v5 support please!!

Unknown said...

Thanks, they look great!

chiu said...

I've noticed the change in gmail on iPhone, googled about it and landed here. The contrast looks great. Like it.

Anonymous said...

Will I be able to get access to my contacts as well soon?

Gérard said...

no improvement for international Gmail users. this update is again US-English only. Even the old interface released in April is US only. International users are still forced to use the *very* old interface.

Brian said...

Hopefully Android will support external bluetooth keyboards soon, so we can type out emails faster and easier.

Minnesota Hotdish said...

:( I really wish you would stop leaving Blackberry out. I love Google as much as my Blackberry and would LOVE to have some of these new features.
So why not bring some love to Blackberry?