Google unleashed a new version of its mobile Gmail app in the Android Market on Tuesday, and said its mobile Gmail updates will no longer be tied to Android updates. The goal, Google said, is to enable smartphone users to receive the latest Gmail enhancements without having to wait for system updates to hit their phones.
The latest app improvements include enhancements that streamline Gmail replies. As users scroll through a conversation, their most important message actions “will now stick to the top of the screen — one click away — no matter how long the e-mail is,” noted Gmail for Android team members Simon Arscott and Paul Westbrook.
If users can’t remember what prompted the most recent e-mail in a thread, they can now “view previous message content more easily — just like in the desktop version of Gmail,” Arscott and Westbrook wrote in a blog. “Tap ‘Show quoted text’ to reveal the previous message.”
Minimizing Inbox Clutter
Designed for smartphones powered by Android 2.2, also known as Froyo, the software update integrates limited support for Priority Inbox — an experimental way of taking on information overload in Gmail that Google introduced for desktop PCs last month. With Priority Inbox, Google has found a way to minimize the inbox clutter caused by mail that isn’t outright junk but isn’t very important, noted Google software engineer Doug Aberdeen.
Google has evolved Gmail’s filter to help separate the wheat from the chaff by splitting the user’s inbox into three sections labeled ‘important and unread,’ ‘starred’ and ‘everything else,’ Aberdeen wrote in a blog. “In a way, Priority Inbox is like your personal assistant, helping you focus on the messages that matter without requiring you to set up complex rules,” he explained.
Android handset users now have access to the same Google technology for desktop PCs, which…