I tried switching to Gmail for Android and noped out immediately

The Gmail app comes pre-installed on the best Android phones you should buy. Gmail can also be utilized by over 1.8 billion individuals — roughly 20% of the world’s inhabitants. Given the quantity of people that use the service, its pre-installation state on Android, all the flamboyant AI features in Gmail, and the truth that Google owns each it and Android, one would assume that Gmail on Android could be one of the best e-mail expertise you will get, proper? Nevertheless, I’d argue it’s simply OK. Nicely, not less than that’s what I believed for a very long time, anyway.

Prior to now, I had discovered the Gmail app’s options anemic when in comparison with the opposite best email apps for Android. I used Blue Mail for a extremely very long time and not too long ago switched to Outlook, which is definitely fairly terrific. In September, although, I bought a shiny new Google Pixel 9 Pro, which meant I wanted to arrange my telephone over again. Whereas I used to be doing that, I stated to myself, “Hey, I haven’t used the Gmail app shortly. I’m wondering if it’s gotten higher than I keep in mind it?”

Sadly, the app has not gotten significantly better. Actually, I’d say little or no has modified with it because the final time I actively used it, some seven or eight years in the past. My expertise introduced me from saying that the Gmail app is “simply OK” to saying it’s really not good. I posted about this on Threads, and somebody requested why I believe the app is unhealthy. I noticed I had an excessive amount of to say for only one Threads put up, so listed here are the most important causes the Gmail app for Android just isn’t almost pretty much as good as different competitor companies — or, in lots of circumstances, the identical app for iOS.

Let me begin by saying I get a number of emails. My Android Authority account is pummeled with messages from manufacturers everywhere in the world hoping I’ll write about their merchandise. I additionally get emails from firms about coordinating journey preparations and gadget deliveries, messages from readers such as you who’ve one thing they need to inform me, and even emails from different writers hoping to attain a visitor put up (Android Authority doesn’t do visitor posts). There are days once I get up to over 50 new emails.

Navigating by means of all these messages is a chore — one that might find yourself taking on manner an excessive amount of of my day. One of the crucial environment friendly methods for me to take care of this torrent of messages is to mark an e-mail as “learn” straight from the notification. In most conditions, seeing the sender, topic, and first few phrases of the e-mail are all I want to evaluate whether or not or not it deserves extra of my time. If it does, I both faucet the notification to learn it proper there or swipe the notification away and skim the message later since it’s going to nonetheless be marked as “unread” in my inbox. If the e-mail doesn’t deserve extra of my time — which is almost all of emails I get — I need to mark it as “learn,” so it nonetheless stays in my inbox for future reference however will permit me to maneuver on to different issues shortly.

Sadly, Gmail for Android doesn’t provide this characteristic. You’ll be able to reply to an e-mail from the notification, archive it, or delete it. By default, the notification simply has “Reply” and “Archive,” however you’ll be able to change this to “Reply” and “Delete” within the app’s settings. There’s no possibility for “Mark as Learn,” which almost each different main e-mail app affords.

Confusingly, this characteristic is obtainable within the Gmail app for iOS. So Google is conscious that folks need and actively use the “mark as learn” possibility, however it chooses to not provide it on Android, particularly. This makes zero sense.

Having a piece/life steadiness is extremely essential, and an enormous a part of that’s being able to show off notifications associated to work. Slack affords this, as does Asana (two of the most-used and best Android apps for any Android Authority worker). All I must do is inform Slack or Asana my working hours, and so they flip off notifications throughout off time. That manner, I can stay my life with out feeling like I’m simply working continuous.

Most e-mail apps additionally provide this on a per-account degree. Outlook for Android, for instance, permits you to set a Do Not Disturb schedule for every account added to the app. In my case, this pushes notifications about private emails throughout off-work time however not notifications for work emails. For me (and I’m certain many different individuals who work distant jobs), that is an important characteristic. Nicely, it’s additionally a characteristic Gmail for Android doesn’t have.

It’s astounding that that is lacking from Gmail, particularly whenever you keep in mind how a lot Google focuses on its Digital Wellbeing initiative. There’s a whole part of the Android working system devoted to this concept, but the Gmail app doesn’t can help you flip off work notifications at set instances. How do these two issues jibe?

Granted, I can use Digital Wellbeing instruments to schedule a shutdown of all e-mail notifications, however that isn’t what I need. I nonetheless need to see emails from my family and friends — I simply don’t need to see work-related ones. It’s mind-boggling that Google doesn’t provide this.

Most individuals studying this use their e-mail apps on a number of units. Should you purchase one of many best Android tablets accessible proper now and need to duplicate the Gmail expertise you could have in your telephone on that pill, you solely have one alternative, sadly, which is to construct up that app from scratch. There’s no solution to totally carry over every thing about your telephone set up of Gmail to the brand new pill with out some extent of handbook configuration.

Curiously, most different Android e-mail apps can sync many components and settings to the cloud. Blue Mail in all probability affords probably the most strong system for this, which known as MagicSync. This lets you add your major e-mail account to your new set up, use the MagicSync code created in your different set up, and poof: every thing is robotically recreated in your new set up. For safety functions, you continue to must enter the passwords in your accounts, however your settings, signatures, and app customizations all carry over.

Gmail for Android can’t even contact this degree of comfort. Your signatures, settings, and mailboxes don’t switch to a brand new set up. Each time you arrange a brand new Android gadget, you need to do every thing from scratch. That is particularly infuriating for individuals who work at locations like Android Authority, the place we’re continuously organising Android units. It’s an enormous time suck.

One more manner I try and handle the deluge of every day emails I obtain is thru filters and labels. Filters, particularly, are very helpful for this (though one must be cautious to not make filters that might trigger you to miss important Gmail messages). For instance of how I take advantage of this instrument, I’d get a number of pitches per week from a model asking me to cowl their merchandise. Most instances, there’s no solution to unsubscribe from these pitches, and I do know we’re unlikely ever to cowl them, so each e-mail is, fairly actually, a waste of my time. So I’ll add that model’s identify right into a filter and have each message with that identify robotically marked as “learn” and designated with a particular label (which strikes it out of my inbox and right into a folder). This occurs on the server degree, so I merely by no means see these emails except I search for them.

Nevertheless, to do any of this group, I want to make use of the net model of Gmail. Not solely can I not create new filters and labels in Gmail for Android, however I can’t even edit present ones. If I’m on the go together with no speedy entry to my laptop computer, I must make an observation to myself to take care of that filter/label later. Usually, when a message arrives that causes me to suppose, “I want a brand new filter for this,” I simply go away that e-mail in my inbox marked as “unread,” so I keep in mind to assault it subsequent time I’m at my pc. However there shouldn’t be any purpose I can’t do that on my telephone proper once I provide you with the concept.

It’s not like that is unprecedented, both. In style open-source e-mail app FairEmail affords the power to put in writing filter guidelines on the go. Nevertheless, it’s a part of its Professional characteristic suite, so that you’ll must pay for it. Regardless, that is proof that Google might permit for this in Gmail for Android. It simply doesn’t.

OK, I’ll admit that this one is a bit nitpicky, however hear me out. Let’s say I get an e-mail that has one thing to it that makes me uneasy, like a suspicious URL. After doing a scan for Android viruses, I wouldn’t need that e-mail hanging round my inbox, so I’d delete it. However I do know that the e-mail will then sit in my Trash folder for not less than 30 days earlier than Google completely destroys it, which isn’t splendid.

In that scenario, I’d need to go into my trash folder and completely delete that one e-mail. Nevertheless, this isn’t doable with Gmail for Android. I might delete all the emails in that folder, however I can’t simply delete separately. With the intention to do issues one after the other, I’d want to move to my laptop computer and use the net model of the app.

You would possibly suppose that is fairly low on the totem pole for Gmail options, however right here’s the kicker — Gmail for iOS has this characteristic! One more factor individuals with iPhones can try this Android customers can’t, despite the fact that we’re utilizing the identical app from the identical firm. You already know, the corporate that owns Android.

I saved one of the best (or worst) for final. I’ve 4 e-mail accounts: private, Android Authority, freelancing (not used a lot anymore), and one for my now-defunct podcast Skipped on Shuffle. Gmail for Android has a nifty “All Inboxes” part that pulls all emails from these 4 accounts into one feed. I really like this as a result of I can see every thing collectively and know I’ve no unread messages while not having to bounce from account to account or scroll too far.

The issue, although, is that on Android, there’s no solution to default to this “All Inboxes” filter. In different phrases, once I shut Gmail for Android after which open it once more, it’s going to open up my final used inbox. I can’t go into Gmail’s settings and inform it to all the time begin with All Inboxes.

I haven’t tried each e-mail app ever, clearly, however I’m fairly assured that Gmail for Android is the one one with over one million installs that doesn’t permit for defaulting to All Inboxes, which is patently insane. It turns into much more insane when, as soon as once more, you be taught that that is one thing Gmail for iOS has.

Even when this had been the one factor Gmail for Android was lacking, it might be sufficient to make me not need to use it. However this, mixed with every thing else on this checklist (together with a couple of issues I didn’t trouble placing right here), pushed me to desert my try to make use of Gmail as an alternative of one thing else.

For now, I’m invested in Outlook for Android, which is strong, easy, and affords nearly every thing I might need. I nonetheless must make filters on my laptop computer, which sucks, however not less than I can default to the All Inboxes folder, mark emails as learn from the notification, not arrange my e-mail signatures again and again, and many of the different issues on this checklist.

So long, Gmail. Perhaps I’ll come again in one other eight years to see if something’s gotten higher.