“There’s a whole new wave of features being considered for Google’s popular email client, and on the list is more tabs, a new pin system, and the ability to temporarily quiet an email notification.”
Gmail adds unsubscribe button to rid your inbox of promotions
“Google is making it a bit easier to rid your inbox of spam. It’s beginning to add an unsubscribe button to Gmail that will automatically appear in the header of emails that it detects might be unwanted messages from marketers.”
Did you lose Gmail over Exchange when you upgraded to a new iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c? Here are your alternatives… such as they are…
“Earlier this year, Google decided to ditch their Exchange ActiveSync-licensed GoogleSync service for free Gmail accounts.”
A Reminder to Follow-up your Starred E-mails in Gmail
If an important email arrives in your Gmail mailbox and you are unable to respond right away, you “Star” that message. These Stars (or Flags in Outlook) help us in remembering messages that need to be acted upon later else they are likely to get lost in the sea of incoming emails.
The problem is, unless you are regularly pruning the list, your Starred folder in Gmail may become just another dumping ground for emails that require follow-up.
Setting a Reminder for Pending E-mails
What I have done is created an email newsletter that arrives every morning and contains a list of 10 messages, picked randomly from the entire pool of messages that are marked with a star in Gmail.This daily email works like a gentle nudge to act and also alerts me of messages that have been pending for too long. Here’s how you can set up one for your own Gmail account.
Copy this Google Sheet to your Google Drive.
Open the sheet and a new Gmail option will appear in the menu bar. Choose Initialize and grant access.
Now choose Gmail -> Install to activate the script that will send you a daily newsletter. Close the Google sheet.
If you wish to stop receiving the email reminder anytime, open the same Google Sheet and choose Uninstall from the Gmail menu.Related reading: Create Email Reminders Quickly
Also, the Google Script will send you a summary of 10 messages from your Starred folder. You can however change the values of cell D5 and D7 in the sheet to monitor another label or change the count of messages that should be included in your daily digest.
Gmail Offline – Google Launches Offline Versions of Gmail, Calendar & Docs
Google is launching a new Gmail web app and updates to Calendar and Docs, in an effort to increase its products’ offline utility.
Google users have called bringing Gmail, Calendar and Docs offline an essential step for improving productivity, Group Product Manager Rajen Sheth told Mashable. The problem, he explained, is that when users need offline access to their email or calendar, they really need it.
To that end, Google is launching a new Chrome app called Gmail Offline. Separate from Gmail itself, the new app is designed for accessing, managing and sending email while you’re disconnected from the web. “We can build on top of a lot of HTML5 standards, which gives us the capabilities to make it work offline,” Sheth said.
The HTML5 app looks and feels a lot like the Gmail app for tablets. That’s because Gmail Offline is based off the tablet version, which was designed to function with or without Internet access. It focuses on the key features users need to access while offline, including organizing, starring, labeling, archiving and responding to email. It won’t give you access to Gmail Labs features, but it will get the job done.
In addition to the Gmail Offline app, Google is rolling out the ability to access Calendar and Docs offline. The feature, available by clicking the gear icon at the top of the page, lets you view events and RSVP to appointments in Calendar and view documents in Docs. Offline document editing isn’t available yet, but Google promises to find a way to make it work. Part of the problem is finding a way to make sure document edits made offline don’t override edits made by online collaborators.
The apps are only available through the Chrome Web Store at the moment. If you try to use the Calendar or Docs offline features, you will be prompted to first install Chrome. Google says that it intends to roll out its offline apps to other browsers once they support the functionality.
via Google Launches Offline Versions of Gmail, Calendar & Docs.
Latest Gmail For Android Update Breaks Third Party Apps
If you’re anything at all like me, then you update your apps as soon as possible; after all, new is always better right? Well those who rely on certain apps and widgets that tie into Gmail may want to hold off.
The latest update for the Gmail Android app packs some performance fixes and battery improvements, but we’re hearing that there’s more to the update than meets the eye.
Certain developers (most notably Federico Carnales, of Launcher Pro fame) were notified a few weeks ago that because of potential security issues, the API used by certain apps to access Gmail messages would be removed in the 2.3.5 update. As a result, most apps that relied on that older API are locking up or force closing whenever they are opened. Even though Google seems to have made efforts to reach out to the developer community, at least a few people were caught by surprise and have updated their app descriptions in the market accordingly.
According to software engineer Chris Banes, the change in question blocks access to the app’s database:
Basically, previously an app just had to declare that they use the READ_GMAIL permission in it’s Manifest and it would all work. Now though, they’ve added the android:protectionLevel=”signature” which means that only the Gmail app itself can access it’s DB (as that’s the only thing which will have the right signature).
via Latest Gmail For Android Update Breaks Third Party Apps | TechCrunch.
