Gmail Adds Safari Support for Drag-and-Drop Files and Other HTML5 Features

Gmail has been adding several HTML5-based features in recent months which really come in handy at times. The problem is, despite all the HTML5 hoopla, the technologies associated with the proposed standard are still in their infancy, at least in terms of adoption. So the drag-and-drop features Gmail introduced only worked in a couple of browsers, Chrome and Firefox. Now you can add a third to the list, Google has introduced support for the features in Apple Safari 5.

“We've been posting a bunch recently about new Gmail features built on top of HTML5 and other advancements in browser platforms, but so far you've only be able to drag in attachments and drag images into messages in Chrome and Firefox, and the ability to have new windows outlive your original Gmail window was limited to Chrome. Now, all three of these features work in the newest version of Safari (Safari 5) too,” Google announced.

Drag-and-drop attachments

We’ve already written about all of these features and here’s a quick recap. The first feature Gmail introduced was drag-and-drop attachments. As the name more than implies, it enables users to drag one or more files from their desktops into Gmail and have them uploaded as attachments to a new email message. It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a great feature and one that moves web apps one step closer to feature parity with regular desktop ones.

Drag-and-drop images

The second feature is very much related to the first, it enables users to drag images directly into email messages. The images will be integrated into the message rather than added as attachments, another handy feature Gmail has had for a while. When it was introduced, the feature only worked in Google Chrome.

Improved Gmail ‘new window’ support

Finally the most recent addition is also the most subtle. As you may know, Gmail allows you to open messages or new emails you’re composing in a new pop-up window separate from the main Gmail app. The problem with this is, if you close the original Gmail tab, the new window will be closed as well. Now, thanks to a bit of HTML5 trickery, if you close the original tab, the Gmail code will be ‘transferred’ to the pop-up window. This feature, introduced last month, also worked only with Chrome. Now, all of them work in Safari 5 as well.