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Tag: Gmail Blog

  • Gmail For iOS Finally Gets Full Notification Center Support

    The Gmail app for iOS has finally gotten one of the most user-requested features: full Notification Center support. The app now supports banners, alerts, and lock screen options within iOS. The announcement of the new feature came in a blog post by Jason Parachoniak, a software developer at Google. Parachoniak also revealed two other features that would be coming to the iOS version of Gmail.

    The Notification Center support was sorely needed, and Parachoniak even states that the notifications in the updated app are “up to” five times faster than before. The window shade notification bar was one of the only advantages early Android had over iOS, and was something that made Gmail on an Android phone very useful. Now that Notification Center integration is complete, the Gmail app on iOS is finally up to par, and possibly better, than the Android app.

    Another feature announced is the ability to use alternate email addresses directly in the app. As long as users have alternate sender addresses configured for Gmail, the “From:” option will appear when composing emails within the iOS app.

    The updated app also now allows users to stay logged into the app indefinitely. “You can still choose to sign out of your account, but you won’t be automatically logged out after a certain period of time has elapsed,” Parachoniak said.

  • Gmail Now Features Google+ Replies From Your Inbox

    Gmail today announced that a new feature now allows Google+ users to respond to Google+ email notifications right from their inbox. The image above shows how Google+ email notifications will now look for users of Gmail. These changes have already begun rolling out, and will continue to be implemented for Google+ users throughout the week.

    The announcement came on the Official Gmail Blog, where Zohair Hyder, a Google software engineer, detailed the tighter Gmail integration with Google+. Gmail users can now view, comment on, and +1 posts from inside their inboxes. Any further replies to the Google+ post will also appear in the Gmail notification message. Google+ users who don’t have Gmail can still reply to a Google+ email notification, as seen in the image below. The reply will be immediately posted to Google+.

    An example of a reply to a <a href=Google+ email notification” />

    These features seem nice, if a bit unnecessary. Any user that is logged into Gmail will have Google+ notifications at the top of the page, and can reply there. The email replies could benefit some feature phone users or those smartphone users who have an email app on their mobile devices, but not a Google+ app. Mostly, the changes seem to be about Google’s current drive to more tightly integrate all of their services, which has not gone over well with everyone. Wil Wheaton, for example.

    What do you think? Will you use these Gmail features? Are they necessary? Leave a comment below and let us know.