Setup Gmail on Your iPhone: All Your Options, Seriously

Those dark times when you had to sit at your computer to get e-mail from the server and read them only at your desk are long gone. Different webmail services allow us to read and send our email from anywhere.

Some of them, such as Google’s Gmail, have the ability to send you push notifications on your iPhone whenever you get a new email message. A few days ago Google released its official Gmail iPhone app, which gives you another way of accessing your e-mail. Let’s take a look on how you can get your Gmail inbox on your iPhone:

Web interface

The most common thing to do is to open up the Safari and type gmail.com into the address bar. After you log in, you will end up with Gmail’s great mobile interface which allows you to see your complete inbox as well as your other folders and labels.

If you’re not much of an email addict, you’ll probably be satisfied with the web/mobile interface, but don’t hope to get* push notifications and little icons showing the unread count. For that, you’ll have to set up an Exchange account.

Exchange Account

Don’t worry, this is pretty simple. There is no need to have Exchange server installed somewhere as everything is set up on Gmail’s own servers. The set up process consists of several easy steps explained in detail on Google’s Support page.

What’s great with Exchange account is that not only will it sync your Gmail inbox with your iPhone, but calendar events and contacts as well! So, get your iPhone and set up the Exchange account, you’ll get everything synchronized with your device.

You don’t have to open up Safari anymore, simply compose and read your e-mail’s from iPhone’s Mail application.

Gmail IMAP Account

While setting up an Exchange server, you might have noticed a Gmail account icon. You would use that if you want to set up your iPhone as your IMAP mail client. IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol and it is one of the standard protocols for communicating with email servers. It holds a connection with the server and if you delete a message from your phone, it will get erased from the server as well.

You would set up IMAP Account with Gmail only if you don’t want push notifications with calendar and contacts synced with your phone.

Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

The latest addition to Gmail’s email army is a standalone iOS app that combines the best from web interface and iPhone’s Mail application. Once set up, it will notify you about new e-mail’s with push notifications and sounds and make composing your e-mail’s much easier, as it will autocomplete your contact’s name while you type it. Its mayor advantage over iPhone’s Mail app is the ability to attach photos directly from compose screen, as opposite of creating an e-mail message from the photograph.

If you’re an iPad owner, you can even use the split-view screen and have your inbox and the message on the same screen! Currently, the Gmail app is available on the US AppStore only. Do you prefer to manage e-mail’s on your computer or on your smartphone?

Title icon credit: techclarify.com