Google first unveiled Google Sync for the iPhone back in February, however at the time it was missing one key item — push support for Gmail. Well, in a little bit of good news the announcement that many (myself included) have been waiting for is here, Google Sync now has the ability to offer push Gmail for iPhone users.
“Using Google Sync, you can now get your Gmail messages pushed directly to your phone. Having an over-the-air, always-on connection means that your inbox is up to date, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Sync works with your phone’s native email application so there’s no additional software needed. Only interested in syncing your Gmail, but not your Calendar? Google Sync allows you to sync just your Contacts, Calendar, or Gmail, or any combination of the three.”
As the official announcement on the Google Mobile Blog stated you are using the default Mail app on the iPhone, which means there are no third party apps to install, and in turn there is nothing you need to pay for. A nice free solution.
The setup process does take a few minutes, however there is a nice step by step guide to get you through. I would advise doing one thing first, if you are going to be syncing your contacts and calendar along with your email, then please make sure you back everything up before you begin.
The one downfall here is that Google Sync uses Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, and the iPhone will only allow one Exchange ActiveSync per iPhone. So for some that may rule Google Sync out, but otherwise these seems to be a good option, and for me this may be enough to finally convince me to let my MobileMe subscription lapse.
[Google Mobile via Official Google Mobile Blog]
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September 23rd, 2009 at 8:54 am
I tried it yesterday. But could not test properly. I had same gmail account setup as two Inbox on iPhone. One via old normal SMTP, and new one via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.
My Findings
1. SMTP seemed to get mail before Google Sync!!
2. Could not delete mails on Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
My Issue. Could not re-arrange order of Mail Accounts (this is for apple to fix)
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:12 am
@Devesh
To begin with, I also hate that Apple does not allow us to re-order mail accounts, hopefully that will change in the future.
Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with Google Sync. I did set it up on my iPhone this morning and so far it works great. I left my Prowl/Growl notifications on and so far the Google Sync and Prowl are giving me an alert at just about the same time. Each within a few seconds.
I may suggest to give it another shot, there may have been a small issue when you were doing your testing yesterday.
As far as timing, I am not sure exactly how long it is taking to get my Google Sync push, but seems pretty fast.
As far as deleting mail using the Mail.app on the iPhone and Google Sync (Exchange) push setup. According to the “Known Limitations” (found here: http://google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=14252&ctx=hpmailsynci) you are actually archiving the message and not deleting it.
“When using Google Sync, certain actions in Gmail may have different behavior than you’re used to. For instance, if you “delete” a message from your Inbox, this will actually archive the message. Check out our complete list of how actions taken on your device will affect your Gmail interface. “