Google's new Gmail mobile web app sports offline message caching, lots of floaty goodness

If you've been losing sleep in eager anticipation of the new Gmail for mobile, rest assured that you'll sleep soundly tonight. With support for both Android phones and iPhone / iPod Touch OS 2.2.1, the gang over at the Google mobile blog are justifiably proud of the new app. Expect nothing less than a more robust cache that utilizes Gears (for Android) and SQLite databases (for iPhones / touches) to allow you to compose messages and access recently read messages without a network connection, an improved look and feel, and the all new "floaty bar" (their name, not ours) that keeps popular menu commands from scrolling off screen, as this bad boy rolls out progressively over the course of the day. Most interestingly, using the new Gmail on your devices doesn't require any tweaks or installs -- it's utilizing HTML5 (and its offline storage APIs) already present in the browser. Google is just turning on the juice behind the scenes. And for those of you who are resistant to change, fear not -- the previous version is still available. Check it out for yourself over at gmail.com, but not before peeping that super-sweet video after the break.

[Quikboy Posted Apr 7th 2009 7:06PM]

What is wrong with Windows Live Hotmail? Lack of IMAP support is about the only thing I can think of, but there are ways around that, and that's not enough to make it 'horrible'.

[Quikboy Posted Apr 7th 2009 7:02PM]

I thought Engadget doesn't do news about web services? Shouldn't this be posted in Engadget Mobile instead? Or Download Squad?

[Hawkman Posted Apr 7th 2009 8:39PM]

There doesn't seem to be a "floaty bar" for me... Anyone else get it?

I was curious to see how they did it!

[Chefgon Posted Apr 7th 2009 8:51PM]

This appears to be designed primarily for iPhone, with an Android mention thrown in because it technically also works on the Android browser. I really don't see why any Android user would be even remotely interested in this web app since Android's built-in Gmail app already has a very similar full Gmail interface with threaded messages and instant push notifications.

[tk24 Posted Apr 7th 2009 9:24PM]

So I can understand the reason iphone users would want to use this, but why would Android/G1 users want to use the site when the Gmail app gives us everything except the...."floaty bar"?

[Gavin M Posted Apr 7th 2009 10:05PM]

it supports landscape keyboard

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 8th 2009 2:32AM]

Finally! They even added search function! Incredible! :P

Well, on a serious note I must say it is much more useful now.

[l3it3r Posted Apr 8th 2009 5:43AM]

On windows mobile, outlook does imap, so why would you want a 3rd party application to complicate things? If you still want to try this out on windows mobile, download the Iris Browser. It uses webkit just like safari and loads iphone versions of webpages.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 14th 2009 4:26PM]

I've got one problem with the gmail Web app. Maybe somebody can tell me how to fix it. If I'm doing email on my iPhone, then close it to do something else, then open it again, it opens in a new window instead of going back to the old one. I don't need, or want, a new window. Can I make it act differently?

Jim