Gmail for Android: better Priority Inbox support and improved compose
Thursday, December 9, 2010 | 12:03 PM
(Cross-posted on the Gmail blog.)
When we first released Gmail in Android Market back in September, we said that you’d be getting new stuff faster, and we meant it. After getting thousands of comments on that release, we made a bunch of updates based on your feedback and today we’re launching Gmail for Android 2.3.2.
Priority Inbox
First of all, you told us that you love Priority Inbox and expect much better support for it on your phone. Now you can see important messages in a new Priority Inbox view.
This view includes all important messages in your inbox, regardless of whether you’ve read them or not. You can archive and delete conversations or mark them unimportant from there. You’ll notice the importance markers 
you’re used to seeing in the desktop version of Gmail, and you can also change a conversation’s importance using the menu. To switch between inboxes or labels, try tapping on the current label.
Ever wanted to know that you got an important message without taking your phone out of your pocket? Now you can set up your phone to notify, vibrate, or ring on just your new important mail (check out Menu > Settings > Priority Inbox).
While Priority Inbox on your Android phone doesn’t have all the features offered in the desktop version of Gmail, we think this is a good start and plan to add even more functionality moving forward.
Improved Compose
Since our last Market update, we adopted a few features related to composing messages from the desktop version of Gmail. Many of you asked for a better way to switch between replying to the sender to replying to all. Now, you can easily switch between reply, reply all, and forward while composing your response.
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’ve configured in the desktop version of Gmail.
In addition, you can now respond to messages in-line.
You won’t need to wait for Gingerbread to get these updates. This version of the Gmail app works for Android 2.2 (Froyo) and newer releases in most countries. (Not sure if your device is running the right version? Check here.) Get the update from Android Market (just scan the QR code below, or click here if you're on a phone) and check out the new Gmail. And don’t forget to send us your feedback from within the new version of the app (from your Inbox: Menu > More > About > Feedback).
Labels: gmail for android, gmail for mobile, Mobile Blog
71 comments:
Unknown said...
That SUCKS! What about 2.1 users?
December 9, 2010 at 1:15 PM
Unknown said...
I wish this was rolled out for 2.1 users as well. The changes are very encouraging.
December 9, 2010 at 1:16 PM
Anonymous said...
2.1 user too please
December 9, 2010 at 1:20 PM
Alex Richardson said...
I love Android, but once again android 2.1 users have been forgotten about. Especially those on the HTC hero, who bought into Android early and will now have to buy a new phone to get any sort of update, as we have only just been upgraded to 2.1.
December 9, 2010 at 1:20 PM
Jay -- Arlington Virginia Condos said...
What the app is missing is for the user to be able to set notification settings in terms of how frequent the app checks for new email.
the native gmail app for android allows user to set how frequent the app checks for new email. the gmail app does not. If the gmail app gave us this control we could ditch the native email system.
Please give us this feature.
December 9, 2010 at 1:24 PM
Unknown said...
Why not for Germany?
December 9, 2010 at 1:25 PM
caseyfriday said...
LoL - either root it or buy a new one. Learn to sweet-talk your wireless provider, and you can possibly even get one for free. :)
December 9, 2010 at 1:29 PM
Anonymous said...
This is only on 2.2 and above because gmail wasn't split from the OS into its very own app until the froyo release. It's quite impossible to add to v2.1.
December 9, 2010 at 1:34 PM
Unknown said...
You´re the best, thanks for all google
December 9, 2010 at 1:34 PM
Jason said...
How soon until this rolls out into the iOS world? Would love to see my wonderful Priority Inbox on my phone too.
December 9, 2010 at 1:38 PM
Unknown said...
awesome! i've been waiting for the "send from a different address" feature for a very long time! excellent implementation! thanks android team!
December 9, 2010 at 1:40 PM
Unknown said...
This announcement sucks. It's a shame you, Google, have decided to release all new apps for Android 2.2+ devices...
December 9, 2010 at 1:50 PM
Unknown said...
Awesome thank you for the updates Google. If I could make a suggestion or two for an improvment. I love the mail app but one complaint I have is when someone forwards me an email with multiple pictures and I hit the button "show pictures." I still have to go through and hit the preview button next to each one. This takes forever. I would love if they just showed up in the email after you hit the "show pictures" button. Oh also when people take short videos from their phone and email them to me, I cant view them. Very frustrating since the blackberry I used to have played emailed videos.
December 9, 2010 at 1:52 PM
Rob said...
Thanks google!! Priority inbox is awesome. Those stuck on 2.1 its not Google's fault HTC suck at updating sense to 2.2. You could always install stock froyo.
December 9, 2010 at 2:02 PM
Schatten said...
It is annoying again. Not available in Germany. WHY? We have not even seen the last update.
December 9, 2010 at 2:02 PM
Unknown said...
To every1 complaining about being stuck at 2.1, ROOT YOUR PHONE AND TRY CYANOGEN ROMS... LOL U wont regret it.
I am using HTC magic and have 2.2. If I never did it, I would be stuck on 1.5... ;)
CYANOGEN RULES!!!!!!!!!!!
December 9, 2010 at 2:03 PM
Vittorio C. said...
What's the deal with abandoning support for 1.6? The new version of the Market was force-updated even in old devices (to break Appbrain web install, mainly), but GMail (which actually introduces improvements) can't be updated.
And, there is the possibility that you can't or don't want to root your device (e.g. I don't want to lose warranty on a 300+€ device and the ROMs for my device don't support the camera).
What's the best place to give feedback on this issues? I guess comments on this blog aren't monitored...
December 9, 2010 at 2:08 PM
Lopek said...
Looks great, but again no support for early Android adopters with older phones.
Very disappointing.
December 9, 2010 at 2:19 PM
mtnbikerfred said...
Installation unsuccessful...
December 9, 2010 at 3:01 PM
slothello said...
Multi-select for Archiving and deleting please.....
December 9, 2010 at 3:08 PM
Seiji said...
LOVED IT!
These new features were exactly what I was missing. It's great to see that now I can use on gmail app pretty much everything that I use on gmail webmail page.
The priority inbox is so useful!
Thank you very much, Google Team! :)
December 9, 2010 at 3:22 PM
Unknown said...
Again, not available in Germany. Why?
December 9, 2010 at 4:43 PM
sheanzyy said...
Wow another fail update. The iPhone has a select all feature in its email app....Android has been out for how long and there is no select all feature for the best email provider? I get way to many emails to individually delete them all. Cmon Google.........................
December 9, 2010 at 5:14 PM
Unknown said...
Well the idea is that Gmail can keep all of your emails. You get like 8GB of storage space. So I don't get why you'd want to select all.
December 9, 2010 at 5:51 PM
pcqpig said...
First of all, you told us that you love jade jewelry Priority Inbox and expect much better support for it on your phone. Now you can see important messages in a new Priority Inbox view.
December 9, 2010 at 6:29 PM
kP said...
It's nice they updated the GMAIL app, but the most glaring issue with it remains:
In landscape orientation, 1/2 of the screen is locked down with:
The Android alters top bar (not the real issue, just including it in the math), the message header (Star, Reply, Replay All, Forward), and the bottom Archive Delete < > buttons.
I would much rather have some of these upper and lower button bars recede or require a double tap, or something in order to reclaim that is already a pretty small "client" area for the actual message contents.
December 9, 2010 at 7:19 PM
nel said...
I am using version 2.1 but I think for higher version. Can you roll this update out for 2.1
December 9, 2010 at 9:09 PM
Javed said...
can anybody tell me how to attach a file with a new mail ?
December 9, 2010 at 9:51 PM
Nabil said...
Feature request: Spellcheck
December 9, 2010 at 10:04 PM
Unknown said...
Would love to be able to add and email to the task list from inside the app.
December 9, 2010 at 11:07 PM
Criatura said...
ok. i'm another frustrated 2.1 user :-(
December 10, 2010 at 12:09 AM
Unknown said...
I don't understand why Germany is not on the list of supported countries. I feel like really every country except Germany is on the list.
Google why did you do that to us?
December 10, 2010 at 12:09 AM
Unknown said...
Hi Google
Thanks for a great app, but please fix the missing copy/paste feature
and if I can get more than a wish, then spell check
December 10, 2010 at 1:10 AM
Unknown said...
Germany support Google and Androide so much, so why does Google is so offen ignoring Germany? I want this Gmail Update right now...
Sincerely, a paying costumer.
December 10, 2010 at 1:24 AM
Chris said...
Please enable this update for Germany - the new functions (especially selecting the "from"-Address) are so important for us!
December 10, 2010 at 2:39 AM
Unknown said...
I also cannot understand why this isn't rolled out to Germany. Please explain and fix!
December 10, 2010 at 3:10 AM
Unknown said...
NICE TRY BUT the new Priority Inbox is sorely lacking! Unlike in the Gmail desktop web client, the Android version only allows the user to see Important items in Priority Inbox. To see Everything Else, you need to revert to the regular Inbox, which jumbles all the important and non-important mail. What's the point?
The big value of Priority Inbox is that it allows me to easily delete Everything Else while keeping the Important stuff separate. I can't do that in the Android version. So, for now, I will stick with the regular inbox until the gmail team fixes this massive oversight.
Make the Android version like the desktop version!! Pleeeezzzzz?
December 10, 2010 at 5:16 AM
Unknown said...
Upgrade complete but Priority Inbox view is missing. I know I have the upgrade as I have checked the version and I also have all the new Compose features (which are brilliant btw).
This happens on both my Desire and Galaxy Tab, so I think it might be related to my Google account. For the record, yes, I do have priority inbox turned on in the normal web client.
December 10, 2010 at 5:43 AM
Anonymous said...
The QR code and the link don't work with my Nexus One. I am on T-Mobile in Germany.
Please help.
December 10, 2010 at 5:47 AM
Unknown said...
Great timing for me. Just moved over to Google Apps Premier and had just started cursing that my aliases weren't available on my phone. Have Froyo, duly updated and looking good. Surely something can be done for 2.1 though as that must be the version the majority are on.
December 10, 2010 at 6:13 AM
Ben said...
Can you all work on landscape view when reading emails? I'm usually in landscape with my keyboard slid out when reading emails; top third and bottom third of the view is taken by un-hideable banners:
-the Archive/Delete/<> buttons on the bottom,
-info about who it's from on the top
To top it off, you can't hide the status/notifications bar at the top.
All this works out to only being able to read a few lines of text (only 480 vertical resolution on my MotoDroid). Definitely need more! Please do something about this!
December 10, 2010 at 6:27 AM
Ben said...
btw, same problem exists with the Market in landscape mode.
December 10, 2010 at 6:28 AM
Unknown said...
I'm still having the attachment opening issue. The image, for example, ends up in the gallery but the "fetching attachment" dialog box in gmail just stays up. Only a "back" button will remove it, but gmail still hasnt recognised it has downloaded the file.
Droid X, Verizon, newest OS update.
December 10, 2010 at 7:34 AM
Arkadiy said...
Feature request - allow long-press on dates in e-mail text to create Calendar entries (like long-press on phone numbers allows you to deal them). I often get e-mails that announce an event without providing a calendar event attachment.
December 10, 2010 at 7:39 AM
AntonioPA said...
And the 2.1 users??
December 10, 2010 at 7:42 AM
Ribhi Kamal said...
"now you can send from any address you’ve configured in the desktop version of Gmail."
THANK YOU!!!!!!
December 10, 2010 at 7:53 AM
Unknown said...
Finally, the ability to send an email from another account using my phone. Only thing is, it doesn't work. I just composed a new email and changed the from address to a different address that I have setup in Gmail. But the email was still sent from the default address that is setup in my Gmail settings. Am I missing something?
December 10, 2010 at 9:43 AM
Sherlock Holmes said...
I do like the feature "Reply from the same address the message was sent to". But one thing strange about it. I set default send mail as abc@a.edu (my school mail, not gmail) on the desktop version. It works when I use desktop, but when I use this gmail app on my DORID X, it nerver send email from my gmail address, even if I selected manually the "Send from" as my gmail address. All the emails set as sending from my gmail address are sent from my school mail address (abc@a.edu)
It is really inconvenient since I cannot send/reply emails from my gmail address when I use my phone.
Does any people have this problem? How did you solve it?
December 10, 2010 at 9:53 AM
Unknown said...
It's very disheartening that older devices (i.e., less than a year old) are losing support. Wish y'all would maintain all the way back to 1.6, ideally.
December 10, 2010 at 11:02 AM
Max Fernandes said...
So, what about 2.1???
i like download this atualization to my galaxy 5, thanks to replyme!!!
December 10, 2010 at 11:41 AM
Jodsworth said...
I don't seem to be able to setup separate notifications for priority inbox (say, vibrate all the time and/or play a ringtone) and my normal inbox (flashing light and/or notification bar icon). It's one or the other, depending on the default inbox.
Also, having to switch between priority & normal inboxes is kind of a pain.
But I'm digging the basic idea of priority inbox filtering, so it ain't all bad.
December 10, 2010 at 11:57 AM
Philip Starkey said...
Thankyou for finally listening to the thousands of people asking for the ability to send from any email address in their account!
However one tiny bug with this is that it doesn't automatically select the "from" address as the one the email was sent to. Instead when you click reply, it defaults to the gmail address, and you manually have to change it each time.
Please fix the bug, and make gmail reply to emails from the address the email was sent to!
Thanks!
December 10, 2010 at 4:44 PM
Unknown said...
THE ONLY THING THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE NOW IS GIVE USERS A ABLITY TO TURN CONVERSATION VIEW OFF ON ANY PREFERRED GMAIL ACCOUNT.
I LOVE CONVERSATION VIEW WITH MY PERSONAL ACCOUNT, BUT ITS HELL WHEN IT COME DOWN TO THE ACCOUNT I HAVE MY WORK EMAIL FORWARDED TO. THE REASON IS... ALL MY WORK EMAIL COME FROM A CENTRALIZED EMAIL ADDRESS, BUT FROM DIFFERENT PEOPLE, DIFFERENT TOPICS, ETC...
December 11, 2010 at 11:01 AM
Unknown said...
What about Android 2.1 users?
December 11, 2010 at 11:17 AM
UseMyDroid said...
It says to "click here" if you are on a phone (down by the barcode area, but that link is broken... does not work.
What is the link to the new app on the Android Market?
December 11, 2010 at 11:55 AM
Silent Ninja said...
I'd hate to make this annoying comment on another circumstances, but... come ooon 2.1 pretty please :(
In Argentina we don't have any phones with android 2.2 yet, at least not until past the Q1 2011 :(
December 11, 2010 at 8:54 PM
azza said...
in most countries
That's one thing that annoys me a lot. There're so many apps that is only available in the US (or maybe just not available for my country).
I can understand if it is a specific region-targeted app, an app that is not yet useful for a country (like the new Map with "Places"?), etc., but Gmail?
Why?
December 12, 2010 at 2:45 AM
Sterner Family said...
It's broken on my device. I had to uninstall the update to get it working again. The issue is it hangs on fetching attachments. Below are the details.
HTC Incredible
- version of gmail: reverted back to 2.2
- all attachments
- installed viewers (quickoffice, beamreader, astro, adobe reader)
- network status at time of failure - 3g
December 12, 2010 at 1:51 PM
Unknown said...
Is it possible to bring the same functional to Android 2.1 or is it just technically not possible? Thanks
December 12, 2010 at 4:34 PM
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December 12, 2010 at 9:51 PM
jw416 said...
ECHO the other my new Samsung 2.1. Eithe force some to get the 2.2 out for Fascinate or make this work for 2.1.
December 12, 2010 at 10:47 PM
BulkSMS said...
Hey, this is what i want. Priority inbox is really wonderfull. Thanks to Android. The features are really good.Once again thanks to google.
http://godwinsblog.cdtech.in/2010/12/send-sms-directly-from-microsoft.html
December 12, 2010 at 11:02 PM
Admiral Memo said...
Rather than whine about Google not supporting 2.1 users, I'm going to whine about Verizon not upgrading the Droid Eris to 2.2 or 2.3, even though it is easily possible to do so.
December 13, 2010 at 12:57 AM
Unknown said...
Hopefully this means that Google will address how the Gmail App looks in landscape mode soon.
It's almost unusable since the top and bottom menu bars are constantly being shown. My useable screen area is so small it's a pain to read emails.
This combined with not being able to zoom in or out in the Gmail app make it quite frustrating to use! If there is a large image in my email I can't view it properly because I can't zoom out in portrait and I can't only use 60% of my screen in landscape mode.
Please hide the menu bars in Landscape mode and give us the ability to ZOOM out in the Gmail app!!
December 13, 2010 at 12:37 PM
byteborg said...
App not available from Germany?
Awww, come on... ;-)
December 14, 2010 at 12:52 AM
Unknown said...
No doubt, Google hates us Germans since Street View.
December 14, 2010 at 3:52 PM
threeunderfour said...
Awesome! You listened! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!
December 15, 2010 at 6:21 PM
Mike said...
Please consider backporting this to 2.1. It seems like you have a lot of users who can't upgrade to newer releases. Thank you for keeping Google Maps updated for us!
December 16, 2010 at 2:22 PM
Michel S. said...
December 19, 2010 at 1:10 AM
Unknown said...
These are not at all "improvements" but fixes that should have been included from the first beta release. Shame on Google for only making this available to the very newest Android phones.
December 20, 2010 at 4:48 AM
Unknown said...
App works well on my HTC Desire. One small but important improvement needed (IMO), allowing an option to 'select "show pictures" to diplay embedded pictures' automatically for every mail. Having to press this button everytime I open a mail is painful!
December 21, 2010 at 10:29 AM
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