Hardcore
Gmail users have been waiting for quite a few things from
Google, but few are higher on the must-have list than this. In the past few hours, the Big G has quietly enabled some accounts with a multiple account sign-in option, which -- as you'd surmise -- allows users to sign into more than one Gmail account within the same browser. In the past, users had to use all sorts of tricks (or worse still, a secondary browser solely for their secondary email account) in order to view various identities at once, but now it's as easy as selecting the option and tagging a drop-down menu. Sadly, committing to this sort of sorcery has its drawbacks: Offline Gmail and Calendar will both be disabled (and this doesn't work on mobile devices), and there's no time table as to when those kinks will be worked out. For now, most of you will have time to think it over as you wait for your account(s) to be activated -- everyone else has no excuse for twiddling their thumbs.
posted August 3rd 2010 3:08PM
Anyone know if it will work with a normal google account and a google apps account?
@DanMan Can't you do that already? I don't recall having any issues with mine in the same browser.
I have been opening multiple gmail accounts in Opera for months now using "Private Tab". works great for me.
@DanMan
I'm not sure... I'm having trouble with it right now. I'm using both a personal email account and Google Apps email set up through my college... I can't access the Apps account though... =/. Anyone have any ideas?
@azdude
Yup, private browsing. Works like a charm everytime on every account-based site.
@zuht Yeah, I've been wondering what the hullabaloo is about this all day long...
I've been logging on with a gmail and a google apps account in the sane browser for years.
This feature hasn't shown up for me, though...
@mykie242 Try logging in with two regular Gmail accounts at the same time in the same browser...
@DanMan
I personally just link all my emails together via POP and have 1 master email anyways.
@DanMan I could log into an apps account and a reglar account before. Apps account have a different URL eg. google.mail.com/a/yourdomain if I clicked on a link to say docs in the top left on a Google page it would ask me which account I wanted to use.
@azdude
Exactly, Opera's private tabs work a treat for this.
@private tabs
Would this be the same as "incognito window" on Chrome? I have 5 Gmail accounts, so this is good news. :)
@zuht
It must refer to multiple sign in simultaneously.
now I can check my spam, porn, regular, work, school, piracy, drug dealing, dating, and all my other emails quicker and easier!!!!
@rmbrown09 in all seriousness though, my school next year is moving to gmail accounts for everyone, as opposed to school email.
I am the last year to get in. Not that I really care though, I already have my school email forwarded to my gmail.
@rmbrown09
Yeah. I hate using the school e-mail inbox. Gotta love Gmail for checking that inbox for me and forwarding those e-mails to my Gmail account :)
@rmbrown09
Yeah School email tends to suck. My school is going gmail and live mail as well. I suspect there will be a lot more gmail users than livemail unless we can get exchange support!
When I worked helpdesk I would handle maybe 10 cases a day where the solution was "user needs to empty his/her mailbox" or "you can't send a document that large" or "stop trying to blame the school IT because you forgot to email your report to your professor- we've heard that one before!"
Right or wrong, people use email differently these days, and it's too costly for a school to maintain huge reliable databases for you to store your entire life in a cloud.
Once I get my own place though, I'm setting up my own email server on a pogoplug (with open-exchange support!), and backing it up to an off-site server (like my brother's place), and just maintaining my own cloud. No more limits on anything! (as long as a 2 TB HDD holds out).
Hmmm....I recall having at least 7 Google accounts....this might be handy.
@browserspot or you can just set them up to forward all email to one of the accounts. i have three gmail accounts, and that's what i do. i set up tags so that i can easily tell from my inbox which account the email was sent to, and it's also set up so that i can respond/create an email with any of those three accounts.
@maveric101. .. But your primary address still shows with the dreaded "on behalf of" tag when sending from linked secondary accounts. Not replies though go figure.
No go so far. I await with semi-baited breath.
@d0mth0ma5
bated*
@paul34 Cheers, i'd never been picked up on that. Live, learn.
Now let other people send me Chrome2Phone stuff without having to use my sign in credentials and we will be SET, Google!
about darn time, always had problem log in youtube, cause i can't use different id.
What does this mean for android push notifications?
I wonder how this will look in iGoogle...
Does Hotmail / LIVE already have this functionality?
Finally! I hope this is eventually activated on analytics and adwords.
toggling!!! toggling!!!
"Finally" ... who was the first to enable multiple account sign in from the same browser? If you don't mind me asking.
@Aku thats how I feel
@Aku Microsoft's "Live" service.
This doesn't work too good. I already have a Google account for YouTube (my email got banned for some reason), and I can't use the multi-sign in thing with another Google Account, nor can I use my hotmail because it's "associated with another Google Account". Fuuuuuu
As much as I love gmail, this feature is in the new windows messaging clients my live account is tied with my OLD hotmail accounts and the new features to get rid of spam cleaned out my OLD (emphasis because I started using GMail to avoid spam) but now they have new life and just in time for my windows phone 7 and my zune account and xbox live account. Now it is time to consolidate some email addresses.
This is goodness.
What I would REALLY like is for Google to make threaded emails an option. I have used Outlook for years and I do not like threaded emails.
In fact I now use Outlook for my GMail and Googlemail acounts just to get rid of threaded emials. Works fine.
They already took away offline Gmail for me, when they abandoned Gears for Firefox so I guess I don't stand to lose anything.
Sucks, because I really like having that at work. Oh well. If the internet goes down at work, I guess it's not really my fault. My work ethic will just have to deal.
Woo, about time!
Windows Live already does this. Great for Google users though!
Does it work with YouTube? Wait, I could just try it right now... this is handy though! Wanted a different account name for YouTube then what I had before with my primary email, so I had to make another email. Lame!
I have multiple addresses. I just forward to my main account and use labels and folders where necessary. I guess this is handy for having a bit more control over each account without having to log in and out all the time.
Hmm...not yet activated for me! =( The ability to add non-gmail accounts is there though, whenever that started.. already have an ancient email address there whenever that was!
@aopolis "You can not associate a Gmail address with your Google Account."
Argh, why did you take a perfectly good PNG screenshot and turn it into a hideous JPEG?
PNGs for simple graphics with flat colors and text, JPEGs for photos.
worse case?
I turn this on - it breaks too much for my world - I turn it off & all goes back to "normal"?
ooooo.... i cant wait.
Now how about letting me use my apps account for things like voice, forums, and mobile gmail?
FALSE
Just tried and it says that you cannot have more than one google account.
If you really liked Google, you would be using Chrome. And if you were using Chrome, you would be able to access two Gmails at once by simply opening one in Incognito.
It only allows 3 email accounts to be logged in at once. That sucks. This is useless. I'll stick with my iPhone and Windows Mail. Giving up my calendar and everything else for this is a waste. Perhaps in time they'll figure out that their gmail client should be as capable as Windows Mail or even an iPhone (using multiple exchange accounts for Gmail). Until then, I'll keep it as is.
What they need to do is stop auto adding everybody you send an email to your contacts list..... THAT'S a feature worth talking about!