Gmail Gets Offline Support, Finally
One of the longest-running requests for Google's web mail service Gmail has been for offline functionality. Now, finally, Gmail users will be able to type up those emails inside an airplane. Google has just announced offline Gmail support via Gmail Labs - to start with for consumers and businesses using Google Apps, but regular Gmail consumers will get it over the next couple of days. The offline feature was built using Gears, Google's offline web application API.
In its email to us, Google archly noted that Internet connectivity has started to happen even in airplanes - for example American Airlines announced last year that they will offer in-flight wi-fi service. Even so, many people (including this author) have been clamoring for offline Gmail for years. Google's web mail competitors have been much swifter in offering offline functionality. In October 2008 we reported that Zoho Mail had gotten offline support, ironically via Gears. Yahoo Mail gave offline access to all free and paid Yahoo Mail users through the Yahoo Zimbra Desktop in July '08.
It's been frustrating for Gmail users, many of whom are early adopters, that Gmail has been so behind the times with this feature. Particularly when Google has Gears and has already used it to offline-enable Google Docs and Google Reader. So Google has been slow to use Gears in Gmail and Google Apps, but of course we're pleased to see it being deployed now.
With its new offline access, Gmail will be able to be used inside the browser even without an Internet connection. Messages can be read, starred, labeled and archived and new mail can be composed, says Google. Messages ready to be sent will wait in the Outbox until the user is online again when the messages will be sent automatically. Google has warned though that "there might be some issues that aren't completely ironed out" in the new feature.
The feature will be rolled out over the next couple of days, starting this afternoon for Google Apps users. You can enable offline Gmail by clicking 'Settings' in your Gmail, then click the 'Labs' tab and select 'Enable' next to 'Offline Gmail', and click 'Save Changes.' Then in the upper righthand corner of the account, next to the username, there will be a new 'Offline' link. Click this link to start the offline synchronization process (note that you will need to to download Gears if you haven't already). For non-Google Apps users, you'll have to wait a couple more days.
But wait, there's more. Google is also working on an offline Google Calendar. There is no date for this release, but it too will be launched with Google Apps first.
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
This is great news, and about time!
Great article, it answered several questions I've had for a while. Please continue posting these. :) Regards, Mike
Nice, I'll use it when gears supports 64 in Linux. I'm getting more and more disappointed with Google by the day.
So... Google Gears caches stuff locally on your machine, right? What are the security implications here?
In a way the title of this article is a bit of a falsehood. GMail users have been able to cache local copies of their inboxes since Google added IMAP and POP support to the popular service. This does require that the end user has some limited know how to set up their local email client, but once done, allows for reading, writing, and organizing of emails while on the go, or when away from an internet connection.
Agree with 5. If all it is is offline email, you could already do that with POP/IMAP.
But this is Google acknowledging that the offline scenario is, after all, important. Finally. But they have a ways to go.
Kevin and kayvaan, I don't quite get what you mean. Up till now users haven't been able to compose emails within Gmail's browser interface. This is what offline feature will do.
Okay, so what is this Google Apps thing? I don't get it...and Labs? Are these API type calls specifically for developers???? Sorry for the basic question..:-(
This is great news. I had used IMAP, but I missed my threaded conversations when I was forced offline.
I would have rather had it first for Google Calender, but I'll take what I can get!
@ZV No conversation threading in IMAP ? You must be using a very lousy email client such as Outlook. Any email client worthy of the name has been threading conversations nicely for a decade at least
I have always thought that this was a feature that gmail needed in order to compete with outlook at a time and workload management tool.
This is great! But it will require some special outreach and education for members of the airline community (specifically, flight attendants).
A few years ago, I busted out my Treo when we'd reached cruising altitude and the use of approved portable electronic devices was permitted. While I was writing and saving emails (in offline mode, of course), an alarmed flight attendant demanded that I turn off my "cell phone." Try as I might to explain that it *was* off (offline, anyway), she could not be persuaded that it was possible to use the device in any meaningful way without it sending and receiving "cell phone" signals. I could only get her to go away by closing down the email app and launching Bubble Breaker.
Luckily, my iPhone has a very clearly labeled setting called "Airplane Mode" -- hopefully that will convince the next flight attendant that I'm not violating the rules! (Unless of course I'm on a wi-fi enabled American Airlines flight...which I do hope they inform their employees about, not just their passengers.)
Richard, you're absolutely right. I guess the core confusion revolves around the definition of the Gmail service. I, personally, define Gmail as being a email service, and the Gmail web based client is just a small sect, a minor feature, of what I generally refer to as Gmail. Gmail as the service has had offline support through IMAP and POP for some time, however, true to the article, the Gmail browser based interface has not.
I wrote up a bit about how your data is secured when using Offline Gmail here: http://www.paulspoerry.com/2009/01/29/offline-gmail-is-it-secure/
Note that the data is NOT encrypted locally.