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But you can make web-kit browser apps.

Why hasn't Google made an app that's basically mobile-g-mail in a browser window but given it push notices

Because it's not possible. HTML5 based email client = no push.. no ActiveSync.. no file attachments.. no local address book support.. etc. Safari based email client is a very bastardized version of a proper native app.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Could someone post a step by step to setting up gmail w exchange?

Thanks!
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Could someone post a step by step to setting up gmail w exchange?

Thanks!

1. Open the Mail app & select Microsoft Exchange.
2. Enter your Gmail address next to "Email". Enter your full Gmail address again for the "Username" and your password. Tap the Next button. Enter "m.google.com" for the server name (this field will appear after you tap Next), and then tap Next again.
3. Once the account has been verified, you can turn on Mail, Contacts, and Calendars. Click Save and you're done.
 
For those of you using the normal mail app for GMail, how did you get over the problem of handling multiple labels? I tried for a while but couldn't see a way to do it so I now read my GMail in my browser (iCab).

My problem with labels is that the mail app only seems to understand folders and maps labels onto folders. That's fine if I only use labels like folders so if I want to label an email as relating to "Travel" then I just move it to my "Travel" folder in the mail app and that applies the label "Travel" to it in GMail. But I often put multiple labels on things though so if my email was confirmation of a hotel booking I would apply both the "Travel" label and the "Purchasing" label to it so that I know it also relates to an actual purchase.

I couldn't work out how to move an email into multiple folders (or some other way to apply multiple labels to a single email) so I gave up and, even if I had been able to find a way, then could I do a search equivalent to "label:Travel label:purchasing" to find all emails that had both the "Purchasing" and the "Travel" labels applied to them?

I'd really like to use the regular mail app because that would give me notifications, which is something I lose by doing it all in the browser, but this multiple label issue is a show stopper for me.

- Julian
 
The safari based Gmail is actually quite good if you ask me. For push notifications just use the google app. Set it so it shows the icon badge for new mail. Simple. I still use the native mail app most but when I need to do a little more I use safari. One thing apple needs to do with mail is make it have a decent search. This has always been a issue.
 
Gmail set up as an Exchange account works perfectly me for me. It does exactly what I want without any fuzz and it even pushes email. What's so awful about this implementation?

I like Gmail through the native mail app far more than the Gmail app I had on my Android phone. It was clunky, hard to navigate and it didn't fit in with the Android OS.
 
For those of you using the normal mail app for GMail, how did you get over the problem of handling multiple labels? I tried for a while but couldn't see a way to do it so I now read my GMail in my browser (iCab).

My problem with labels is that the mail app only seems to understand folders and maps labels onto folders. That's fine if I only use labels like folders so if I want to label an email as relating to "Travel" then I just move it to my "Travel" folder in the mail app and that applies the label "Travel" to it in GMail. But I often put multiple labels on things though so if my email was confirmation of a hotel booking I would apply both the "Travel" label and the "Purchasing" label to it so that I know it also relates to an actual purchase.

I couldn't work out how to move an email into multiple folders (or some other way to apply multiple labels to a single email) so I gave up and, even if I had been able to find a way, then could I do a search equivalent to "label:Travel label:purchasing" to find all emails that had both the "Purchasing" and the "Travel" labels applied to them?

I'd really like to use the regular mail app because that would give me notifications, which is something I lose by doing it all in the browser, but this multiple label issue is a show stopper for me.

- Julian

You can't.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/11997288/

The Google app from the app store will give you push notifications for your email, however, so you could use that to notify you of new mail then use the browser to read/manage your email.

There are several other apps that will give you push notifications of your Gmail plus things like customizable quiet hours, etc.
 
You can't.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/11997288/

The Google app from the app store will give you push notifications for your email, however, so you could use that to notify you of new mail then use the browser to read/manage your email.

There are several other apps that will give you push notifications of your Gmail plus things like customizable quiet hours, etc.
Thanks. I just set up what you suggested using the Google app for notifications only and it's working perfectly for me.

I prefer reading my mail in a good tabbed browser because about half of my email messages usually end up in my visiting a web site so it's convenient to be in the browser all the time, it was just the notifications that I was missing.

The basic Google app has the ability to set quiet hours by the way.

- Julian
 
The native mail client is good enough for basic emailing, but it will never be as good as the Android Gmail client for Gmail. One word: labels
 
I like Gmail through the native mail app far more than the Gmail app I had on my Android phone. It was clunky, hard to navigate and it didn't fit in with the Android OS.

absolute, completely, 100% bunk
 
If "native Gmail" is anything like the Google Voice app for iPhone, no thanks. Messages refresh while you're typing out a text (and your text disappears when the refresh finishes). It's unclear when or how refreshes occur. The interface locks up sometimes when you're calling someone.

I prefer the native Mail app, both on iPhone and my Mac.

I think Google is very good at their back end infrastructures (more so than Apple). Interfaces though, Google is not very good at.
 
3 Reasons why a native GMail app would be better:
1) The ability to "Archive" or "Delete"-- it seems like it's only one or the other when using GMail through the iPhone Mail app. (Yes, you can move an email into the "Trash" folder but it's not the same.)

2) Unlimited search through old emails. The native GMail apps on Android and Blackberry do this very well. How do I find an old gmail email (from say 2008) through the iPhone Mail app?

3) The Safari client is simple a bastardized version of an actual app, as someone stated already.
 
If you want the biggest selling point of Android (i.e. complete integration of Google Services), then you should not be buying an iPhone. It's like asking why Microsoft has not ported Direct X to OS X.
 
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I feel that the regular Mail App handled my GMail well
 
I'm having an issue where I go to my gmail in Mail, and when I search for things no results appear, it then asks if I want to continue searching on the server, but it immediately pops up "The connection to the server failed." Can anyone explain what setting I may have wrong?
 
Is there a way to backup my contacts through Google? For example, if I add a name to my address book on my phone it will back up to my GMail contacts?
 
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