I tried switching to Gmail for Android and noped out immediately

The Gmail app comes pre-installed on the most effective Android telephones you should purchase. Gmail can be utilized by over 1.8 billion folks — roughly 20% of the world’s inhabitants. Given the quantity of people that use the service, its pre-installation state on Android, all the flowery AI options in Gmail, and the truth that Google owns each it and Android, one would assume that Gmail on Android can be the most effective electronic mail expertise you may get, proper? Nevertheless, I might argue it’s simply OK. Effectively, at the very least 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 finest electronic mail apps for Android. I used Blue Mail for a very very long time and not too long ago switched to Outlook, which is definitely fairly terrific. In September, although, I acquired a shiny new Google Pixel 9 Professional, which meant I wanted to arrange my cellphone over again. Whereas I used to be doing that, I stated to myself, “Hey, I haven’t used the Gmail app shortly. I ponder if it’s gotten higher than I bear in mind it?”

Sadly, the app has not gotten significantly better. In truth, I might 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 feel the app is unhealthy. I noticed I had an excessive amount of to say for only one Threads submit, so listed here are the largest causes the Gmail app for Android isn’t practically 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 variety of emails. My Android Authority account is pummeled with messages from manufacturers all around the world hoping I’ll write about their merchandise. I additionally get emails from corporations about coordinating journey preparations and machine deliveries, messages from readers such as you who’ve one thing they wish to inform me, and even emails from different writers hoping to attain a visitor submit (Android Authority doesn’t do visitor posts). There are days after I get up to over 50 new emails.

Navigating by way of all these messages is a chore — one that might find yourself taking on approach an excessive amount of of my day. Some of the environment friendly methods for me to take care of this torrent of messages is to mark an electronic 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 would like to guage 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 browse the message later since it is 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 wish 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 supply this function. You possibly can reply to an electronic 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 practically each different main electronic mail app provides.

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

Having a piece/life steadiness is extremely necessary, and an enormous a part of that’s being able to show off notifications associated to work. Slack provides this, as does Asana (two of the most-used and finest 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 approach, I can dwell my life with out feeling like I’m simply working continuous.

Most electronic mail apps additionally supply this on a per-account degree. Outlook for Android, for instance, lets you 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 positive many different individuals who work distant jobs), that is a necessary function. Effectively, it’s additionally a function Gmail for Android doesn’t have.

It’s astounding that that is lacking from Gmail, particularly whenever you bear in mind how a lot Google focuses on its Digital Wellbeing initiative. There’s a complete 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 occasions. How do these two issues jibe?

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

Most individuals studying this use their electronic mail apps on a number of units. For those who purchase among the finest Android tablets accessible proper now and wish to duplicate the Gmail expertise you could have in your cellphone 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 all the pieces about your cellphone set up of Gmail to the brand new pill with out a point of guide configuration.

Apparently, most different Android electronic mail apps can sync many parts and settings to the cloud. Blue Mail in all probability provides probably the most sturdy system for this, which known as MagicSync. This lets you add your major electronic mail account to your new set up, use the MagicSync code created in your different set up, and poof: all the pieces is routinely recreated in your new set up. For safety functions, you continue to must enter the passwords to 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 machine, it’s essential to do all the pieces from scratch. That is particularly infuriating for individuals who work at locations like Android Authority, the place we’re consistently establishing Android units. It’s an enormous time suck.

One more approach I try to handle the deluge of day by 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 overlook necessary Gmail messages). For example of how I take advantage of this instrument, I would get a number of pitches every week from a model asking me to cowl their merchandise. Most occasions, there’s no solution to unsubscribe from these pitches, and I do know we’re unlikely ever to cowl them, so each electronic mail is, fairly actually, a waste of my time. So I’ll add that model’s title right into a filter and have each message with that title routinely 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 until I search for them.

Nevertheless, to do any of this group, I would like 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 along with no speedy entry to my laptop computer, I must make a remark to myself to take care of that filter/label later. Most often, when a message arrives that causes me to assume, “I would like a brand new filter for this,” I simply depart that electronic mail in my inbox marked as “unread,” so I bear in mind to assault it subsequent time I’m at my laptop. However there shouldn’t be any motive I can’t do that on my cellphone proper after I give you the concept.

It’s not like that is unprecedented, both. Fashionable open-source electronic mail app FairEmail provides the flexibility to jot down filter guidelines on the go. Nevertheless, it’s a part of its Professional function 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 electronic 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 electronic mail hanging round my inbox, so I might delete it. However I do know that the e-mail will then sit in my Trash folder for at the very least 30 days earlier than Google completely destroys it, which isn’t splendid.

In that scenario, I might wish to go into my trash folder and completely delete that one electronic mail. Nevertheless, this isn’t potential with Gmail for Android. I might delete all the emails in that folder, however I can’t simply delete one by one. In an effort to do issues one after the other, I’d want to go to my laptop computer and use the net model of the app.

You may assume that is fairly low on the totem pole for Gmail options, however right here’s the kicker — Gmail for iOS has this function! One more factor folks with iPhones can try this Android customers can not, regardless that we’re utilizing the identical app from the identical firm. You recognize, the corporate that owns Android.

I saved the most effective (or worst) for final. I’ve 4 electronic 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 like this as a result of I can see all the pieces collectively and know I’ve no unread messages with no need 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, after I shut Gmail for Android after which open it once more, it is 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 electronic mail app ever, clearly, however I’m fairly assured that Gmail for Android is the one one with over 1,000,000 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 wish to use it. However this, mixed with all the pieces else on this listing (together with a number 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 provides virtually all the pieces I might need. I nonetheless must make filters on my laptop computer, which sucks, however at the very least I can default to the All Inboxes folder, mark emails as learn from the notification, not arrange my electronic mail signatures over and over, and many of the different issues on this listing.

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