Google’s Gmail for iOS app had a bit of a rough start when it first went live last year (and by ‘rough start’ I mean it was pretty bad), and the search giant has been pushing out update after update since then to make the experience more worth using.
Whether or not they’re making any progress on that front is up to you, but a new update for the app has just gone live and it adds a handful of solid features that probably should’ve been there in the first place.
First and foremost of the new tweaks is support for iOS’s Notification Center — the app is now able to grab user attention with banner, alert, and lockscreen options notifications whenever a new message hits their inbox. Google claims that these newfangled notifications are a full five times faster than they used to be, which makes me curious as to exactly how sluggish notifications used to be.
For those of who spend their time juggling multiple Gmail accounts (and who doesn’t these days?), Google has also added the ability to send emails from alternate email addresses from within the app so long as those alternates have already been set up on the desktop site. Oh, and the app now also lets users stay logged in indefinitely, as opposed to forcing them to punch in their credentials over and over again every time a session expires. Very thoughtful.
For all the new features Google has added, it’s worth noting that the app is still essentially a gussied up version of the service’s mobile web view. These additions are sure to be welcome ones for dyed-in-the-wool Gmail users, but the rest of us are still waiting for support for some of the weightier additions to materialize before even considering a switch. Support for multiple accounts, anyone?