Google Fixes Gmail App For Apple Devices

Google has fixed and reissued its Gmail application for Apple’s iOS platform, a move that should please millions of users who access Gmail from their iPhones, iPads or iPod Touch devices.

Google prematurely made its Gmail application for iOS available in Apple’s App Store on 2 November. Within minutes of downloading the application to their devices, users received error messages in lieu of their push notifications. After detecting a bug in the application’s code that broke messaging notification, Google pulled the application from the App Store, but not before thousands of people had downloaded it.

“We’ve fixed the bug and notifications are now working, and the app is back in the App Store, reported Google product manager Matthew Izatt in a blog post.

Pushing the fixed version

The application includes the fixed push notifications plus sounds, message search, autocomplete for email addresses, and the ability to upload photos with a click using the new attachment button in Compose view. It also includes Google’s Priority Inbox feature to let users rank important messages, threaded conversations and the ability to sort mail in archives, labels, stars and trash.

The Gmail application for iOS is “extra touch-sensitive”. Users can pull down their inbox to refresh and look for new messages, swipe right to see labels and navigate their inbox in split view on the iPad.

During the time it was working on making the Gmail application whole, Google fielded a lot of requests for additional features, including multiple account support, improved notifications and mobile-specific signatures. In fact, Izatt said Google already made a big addition: image HTML messages are now sized to fit to the screen, and users may pinch to zoom in on them.

“We’re just getting started with the Gmail app for iOS and will be iterating rapidly to bring you more features, including all the ones listed above plus many more,” Izatt promised.

Avid iOS users who were among the many to rush to download the broken application two weeks ago must uninstall or log out of it before installing the refreshed, working application, he added.

Applications such as Gmail for iOS are one of the reasons it would benefit rivals Apple and Google to remain “frenemies”. Apple benefits from satisfying users’ desires to use Google mobile applications on iPhones and iPads, while Google enjoys the mass exposure on roughly 200 million iOS devices worldwide.

Outside the mobile application arrangement, the companies are bitter rivals. Apple founder Steve Jobs declared a patent suit war on the Android operating system, which now accounts for 52.5 percent worldwide market share, versus 15 percent for the iPhone, according to Gartner. Conversely, Apple has sold more than 32 million iPads, compared with the handful of million total Android tablets sold.