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Google Adds Gmail and Calendar Push Notifications to iPhone App

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Google today announced an update to its Google Mobile App for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, bringing push notifications for Gmail and Google Calendar.
Ever missed an appointment or important email because you were away from your desk? Now Google Mobile App can help with push notifications from your Google account to your iPhone -- an icon badge shows you've got new mail in Gmail, and Google Calendar event reminders appear right on your home screen.
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Also included in the update is as-you-type results for searches on flight info, weather, stock quotes and currency conversions.

The update appears to just be going live now, and may not yet be appearing for all users.

Article Link: Google Adds Gmail and Calendar Push Notifications to iPhone App
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/23/google-adds-gmail-and-calendar-push-notifications-to-iphone-app/
Interesting. I'll stick with Boxcar for now, but this is a nice option for the future.

If all the Twitter apps add their own push notices than Boxcar might stop being needed altogether.
 
Gmail/GCal already use push when using the Exchange setup with Gmail anyway. The above Gmail/Exchange setup also allows 2-way sync with Google Contacts. My calendar items have been 2-way synced with GCal for like a year and half now, and pop-ups work just like with the native iPhone calendar, because it IS the native iPhone calendar.

So how is this better or even necessary?

iOS lacks a good Android/WebOS notification system, so having that pop up for EACH new email would actually be a pretty terrible IMO.
 
ssspinball said:
iOS lacks a good Android/WebOS notification system, so having that pop up for EACH new email would actually be a pretty terrible IMO.
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How is that terrible? I use boxcar, but the result is the same and I love it.

When I hear the e-mail sound I look at my screen and I know whether or not I want to pick up the phone, unlock it, launch mail, and wait for the message to load in the inbox.

Why would I want to do that every single time a message comes in? Most of the time they're not messages I care to look at right now. I have five "2 second glances" per hour. You'd suggest I turn them each into 20 second "mess with the phone" moments?

I'm not understanding how that's better.
 
How is this Gmail push different from the regular exchange-based Gmail push?

Similarly, why can't Google just sync the notification settings for calendar events and let the phone provide the notification locally?
 
I also have not been able to get push notifications working. I've sent several tests. The badge updates, but no sound and/or alert. It's probably too early and they'll probably iron this out within a few minutes/hours, but I can't help but be anxious! I've been using a 3rd party push notification app for about a year now.

Anyone else get this working yet?
 
Stupid. Why use push notifications in a calendar app when you can use the built in calendar alerts in the iphone. I don't want to miss an appointment because i had crappy cell/data signal. Let's face it, it is AT&T after all.
 
We need NATIVE GMail and GTalk apps! Just like they have on Blackberry.

But this will never happen due to Google's investment in Android.
 
jason2811 said:
We need NATIVE GMail and GTalk apps! Just like they have on Blackberry.

But this will never happen due to Apple's investment in iPhone and their anti-Google stance.
Click to expand...

Fixed that for you.

Why would Google waste their time making a killer App only to have it outright rejected (Google Voice) or neutered (Google Mobile App) by Apple's App Store disapproval process? It isn't Google not wanting to develop these apps, it's Apple not allowing them to.
 
this is cool. But what I'm really waiting for from Google on the iPhone, is a full blown Google Voice App.
 
honeytoast said:
You can get push Gmail in the native app by setting up using the exchange option as mentioned above. Server is m.google.com with your Gmail credentials.
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Which is something that many people do not consider to be native. There's a discussion going on over at TechCrunch about this very thing. The author of the article doesn't consider setting up an account via Exchange ActiveSync to be native, when MobileMe and Yahoo allow you to set up push accounts without going the ActiveSync route.
 
Saladinos said:
How is this Gmail push different from the regular exchange-based Gmail push?
Click to expand...

This is PUSH NOTIFICATIONS. It has nothing to do with push email. Exchange based gmail push doesn't use push notifications when you receive an email.

Like some other poster said, push notifications for email is a terrible idea.
 
Small White Car said:
How is that terrible? I use boxcar, but the result is the same and I love it.

When I hear the e-mail sound I look at my screen and I know whether or not I want to pick up the phone, unlock it, launch mail, and wait for the message to load in the inbox.

Why would I want to do that every single time a message comes in? Most of the time they're not messages I care to look at right now. I have five "2 second glances" per hour. You'd suggest I turn them each into 20 second "mess with the phone" moments?

I'm not understanding how that's better.
Click to expand...

The reason it's terrible is because as soon as a second notification comes in IT OVERRIDES THE FIRST ONE wiping out your usage example entirely. I received 2 new emails (heard the vibrate motor for each) over push gmail (using the Exchange setup written by Google) while writing this response less than 3 seconds apart. With your system I would have only seen the latest one, and that's not including other things using the APNS such as games, facebook, foursquare, etc, all adding to the noise. With the notification system currently in place, only the latest notification is visible without 20 second "mess with the phone" moments, as you put it. And then when you DO finally unlock the phone, you get the push notification pop-up barrage where X number of pop-up bubbles happen in a row, and that is awful to deal with a regular basis. YMMV.

I can sort of see your point, but the experience is currently terrible IMO. If the notifications stacked and rolled downwards or something you'd have a much better point.
 
Push Notifications are coming through, but I'm not getting the pop-up. I'm only getting the badge on the Google App. When I go in, it displays the app page, and has a (1) next to GMail.


Hope they fix this. A pop-up on the lock screen or the home screen would be great.
 
kzoojason76 said:
Push Notifications are coming through, but I'm not getting the pop-up. I'm only getting the badge on the Google App. When I go in, it displays the app page, and has a (1) next to GMail.


Hope they fix this. A pop-up on the lock screen or the home screen would be great.
Click to expand...

The way I understand it, the pop-up notification only works for the calendar. The only notification you get for the mail is the badge icon.

Someone correct me if I am wrong.
 
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