How Google Screwed Up My Gmail Mobile

I don’t have a very nice phone. In fact, my phone is nothing short of dated. When my contract is up in a few months I’ll probably take the opportunity to upgrade networks and get a Blackberry or an iPhone. In the meantime, I’m stuck with my Fusic, a hybrid MP3 player/phone that does neither all that well

But despite my dissatisfaction with the Fusic, it does what I need it to for the most part. Call quality is good, battery life is within reason and it is capable of mobile broadband speeds. If it had a bigger screen and a full keyboard, I’d doubt I’d care too much about its flaws.

The truth is that, realistically, there are only a few apps that I use. However, the most important, by far, is the Gmail Mobile app. It is the one app I use multiple times a day and something I’ve come to rely upon.

The first version of the app was great, a flawed gem perhaps, but solid. I would use it whenever I had a few minutes to flip open, check my mail and close it back up. It was so simple to use, it almost became an obsession, causing me to check my mail any time I found myself idle for longer than five minutes.

When I heard that Google had released a second version of the app, I was excited. Already a Gmail junkie, I thought this was my chance to get an even more robust mobile experience.

Boy was I wrong.

Though most people seem to be singing the praises of the Gmail Mobile, I am singing the blues. For me and my phone, this app has been a total disaster. Maybe when I upgrade my handset my song will change, but right now there is simply no excuse for how bad Gmail Mobile has become.

What went wrong? Well, I’ll tell you?

Offline Access

photo credit: heiyo

Nearly 90% of the problems I have had with the new Gmail Mobile have stemmed from its new offline access feature. It sounds like a great idea and an awesome feature, but it really isn’t that useful and it comes with a series of headaches.

The first problem is that offline access is an attempt to solve a problem that I almost never have and wouldn’t care if I did. Though I’m not fond of the Sprint network, I’m almost never without at least some cell signal.

Thus, I can always get my email and don’t need offline access. When I am without one, the ability to see my old email is almost useless so I don’t even think to open up the app and, usually, have my cell phone completely off. I’ve never once used my phone to look for old mail, just to check new ones and do very quick replies.

If you don’t live some place super-rural, I doubt you’ll get to play much with this feature.

However, the worst part of this feature is that it messes with my standard email check. Here, for example, are the steps that I took to check my email on the old Gmail Mobile:

1. Open Up Phone
2. Press “Favorites” and then “3″
3. New Mail Pops Up

Now, here is my series of steps with the new phone.

1. Open Up Phone
2. Press “Favorites” and then “3″
3. Old Mail Pops Up
4. Press Refresh in Gmail
5. Wait as Gmail Connects to the Web
6. New Mail Pops Up

In short, the new app simply pulls up with the old mail, whatever was in the inbox the last time it refreshes, essentially starting in offline mode every time. Once you press refresh, it pulls down the signal and starts the updating process.

Sure, it is only one more key press, but it is still one I didn’t have to do before. Still, it wouldn’t be that bad if it weren’t for the fact that this new version of Gmail loads slower than the old one, despite the fact that it isn’t pulling any data from the Web, and the refresh takes longer too.

In short, what was once a quick email check has now become a painful ordeal. I’m almost to the point of simply bookmarking my respective mobile Gmail Web pages and using the browser to handle all of my Gmail work.

Crashes, Crashes and More Crashes

Of course, what really irritates me is how often the new app crashes. Sometimes it will freeze on start up, necessitating a reboot of the whole phone. Other times it will crash when checking mail, making it necessary to restart the application. Still other times it will crash when opening an email and other times it will even crash when I try to archive a message.

I used the first version of the app for well over a year without a single memorable crash. In about week with a new one, I’ve had dozens. For my phone, it is a very flawed app and it is a miracle that I haven’t thrown the handset in a fit of rage while waiting for the entire thing to reboot.

Still, this isn’t to say that I don’t have a few nice things to say about the new app. When it isn’t crashing or frustrating me with its needless connections, it does have a few things going for it.

Some Mild Praise

Before I finish up my thrashing of the new Gmail App, I do want to take a few moments and offer a few items of praise for it. After all, there were at least a few things that the Gmail team got right.

1. Multiple Accounts: The ability to check multiple accounts is pretty cool. Previously I had to have two versions of Gmail Mobile on my phone, one for my Google Apps account and one for my vanilla Gmail one. So, having the ability to check both from the same account is pretty neat.
2. Better Scrolling and Movement: I have to admit that the way this version of the app scrolls through messages is much better than the previous version. Much more smooth for me. It makes it easier to find the messages that you want and gives you a little extra piece of eye candy.
3. Search Works: I don’t use the mobile search all that often, but it does work better in the new app. The few times I do use it, I will be glad it is there.

All in all, it is pretty clear that the Gmail mobile team had their heart in the right place, trying to smooth out some of the quirks and problems with the application. However, the execution outright stinks and it makes me want to downgrade to the previous version.

Conclusions

A bad application being released is unacceptable no matter who is releasing it. However, having it come from Google makes it downright sacrilege. Google is supposed to be the best, period, and in this case they dropped the ball and are getting completely owned by third party apps that have no business competing with them.

Maybe when I upgrade I’ll have a different tale to tell, but it seems pretty clear to me that this version of the application was not intended for my piddly phone.

It’s sad though, Google clearly worked hard to include people like me, those that got screwed on their cell phone purchases, when designing the original app and now it seems that we are all left behind.

Oh well, at least I have another good reason to look forward to my “Freedom from Sprint” day.