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gmail or mail app?

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xvipx

Newbie
If we are using gmail does it matter if we use the gmail app or the regular mail app to get our mail? Does the gmail app just sync with the server and not use as much battery life? Is there an advantage to 1 over the other?
 
Not sure ... one thing i did notice the other day though was that one of the apps (can't remember which) when it came to sending something it looked for a mail account within the android system and had no way of linking to the gmail app to send.

Because of this i now have them set up on both but have teh IMAP set to not update. This means its there for me to send if need be but all my normal checking and management i do through the Gmail app.
 
Funny you should ask! I was just wondering this myself, last night. To find out, I decided to run them side-by-side with the same gmail account installed, both as push mail. The gmail app works extremely well, and I get notifications instantly, but I wanted the extended functionality of the mail app. I will post back in a day or so whether the mail app gets notifications as quickly as the gmail app, which was my primary concern. Coming from WinMo, i can tell you that the exchange connectivity to Google can be a PITA. I hope the big G gives preference to their own operating system! Either way, the mail app has more desktop-email-clienty features, like copy and paste from messages, and the gmail app has more gmail-specific features, like label-handling and stars. Otherwise, it's just a matter of preference. Neither is perfect. i may end up running both, one as push mail and one set to manually check mail, if I need the features.
 
I beleive GMAIL does PUSH and MAIL app does not aleast when i used it. So use the GMAIL APP for GMAIL and MAIL app for all other email type accounts.
 
So far, and this is only 1 day's data, my mail program is getting updates a second before my gmail program for the same account, which was unexpected!

Edit: I should also point out that it's instantaneous, and updating before the desktop browser and before outlook.
 
i think it comes down to those who have more than 1 email account that want all emails on their phone.

ex: gmail, yahoo, and then work email/corp.

the email app will have all 3 emails listed. gmail app, of course will only have gmail.
 
Gmail notifications are right on target as far as I can tell. I'm still trying to get the built-in mail program to work correctly. The notification will work for a few hours and then stop working until I restart the phone. I have to do this on a consistent basis. I would love to get this mail program working as it is suppose to as I have multiple email addresses to deal with. Hoping that HTC provides an update to the problem.
 
varunb007 said:
i just use k-9 so i can have all my accounts pushed to me... it's pretty lightweight and user-friendly
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I have read about a few bugs in K9. Have you had any issues? How long have you been using it? Aside from bugs, I have heard it's the best program on Android.
 
Gmail is the answer for me.

If you have other email accounts, just login to your gmail account settings and set it up to grab mail from those accounts.:)
 
seven5suited said:
I have read about a few bugs in K9. Have you had any issues? How long have you been using it? Aside from bugs, I have heard it's the best program on Android.
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no problems whatsoever. and with the update yesterday, they added an integrated mailbox and search. makes viewing mail from multiple accounts so much simpler. you should try it out.
 
Hm, I've been using the stock mail app even for gmail because the gmail app doesn't update unless I refresh it. What am I missing?
 
pwnst*r said:
I don't see that setting in the Gmail settings unless its under general settings, and that is turned on yes.
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ah hmm... and you have google set to sync gmail under manage accounts in the sync settings? the only other thing i've heard is that stopping the gtalk service can interfere with gmail push, but i'm not sure about that. maybe just switch to k-9 :P that pushes just as fast
 
varunb007 said:
ah hmm... and you have google set to sync gmail under manage accounts in the sync settings? the only other thing i've heard is that stopping the gtalk service can interfere with gmail push, but i'm not sure about that. maybe just switch to k-9 :P that pushes just as fast
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I'm going to try re-adding the account. Maybe you can't use one account in both apps?
 
It's official for me: Mail and Gmail push at equal speed. Since we're all on Sprint, I can only assume there are configuration factors if your mail program doesn't get push mail fast enough. Check under settings > accounts and sync.
 
i use gmail and like it so far.

only problem how do you make it so when i delete messages on EVO they don't delete from browser gmail account. i deleted over 200 messages when i first setup the EVO w/o realizing I was deleting them from my account not just EVO.

i don't see anything in settings to change this....help please?
 
EVOtravis said:
i use gmail and like it so far.

only problem how do you make it so when i delete messages on EVO they don't delete from browser gmail account. i deleted over 200 messages when i first setup the EVO w/o realizing I was deleting them from my account not just EVO.

i don't see anything in settings to change this....help please?
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You actually cannot, AFAIK. The app acts just like the browser. Maybe you can work something out with labels such that all incoming messages get a Phone label, you only view messages labeled Phone on your phone, and remove the label when you want the message not to appear on the phone.
 
seven5suited said:
You actually cannot, AFAIK. The app acts just like the browser. Maybe you can work something out with labels such that all incoming messages get a Phone label, you only view messages labeled Phone on your phone, and remove the label when you want the message not to appear on the phone.
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damn that sucks. what does AFAIK mean? hard to believe i can't do this since i was able to on my centro that had before i got the evo. i will try labels, but still feel like there should be a setting to correct this problem.
 
EVOtravis said:
damn that sucks. what does AFAIK mean? hard to believe i can't do this since i was able to on my centro that had before i got the evo. i will try labels, but still feel like there should be a setting to correct this problem.
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It's not really a problem per se; it's just giving you the same Gmail interface you know and love from the web browser. I prefer having my deletions happen throughout.

It actually sounds like what you want is more like POP3, when all you do is download the messages, and not a full sync with the server. POP3 (in the Mail application in Android) will not sync your deletions.

Hope this helps. (size pertains to importance...)
 
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