14 DAY TRIAL // Google has recently rolled out an update to the iOS version of Gmail to add two important features that iPhone users have been eagerly waiting for: support for the iPhone X and for third-party email accounts.
Gmail for iOS version 5.0.171119 is the first release that introduces support for Apple’s new iPhone X, which requires special tweaks to the interface in order to render apps correctly on the 5.8-inch OLED display featuring a notch.
Even though at first it looked like Google wasn’t quite in a rush to update its apps for the iPhone X, it now looks like the company optimized most of its official clients to take advantage of the screen estate on the new Apple device.
The latest Gmail update also adds support for third-party accounts, which means that Google’s app finally becomes a fully featured email client just like the one that comes built-in with iOS or Microsoft Outlook.
iPhone X app updates
This feature was already available in the Android version of Gmail, but is only now rolling out for iOS users limited to IMAP accounts, most likely with the company planning to add support for more non-Google email accounts in the coming updates.
Due to the new screen size and the notch at the top, iPhone X needs apps to be specifically optimized to be rendered correctly on its display and use all of the available space, and this obviously takes time. On the good side, most large companies have already updated their apps or are in the process of doing it, so the app experience of early iPhone X adopters shouldn’t be substantially impacted.
This is what happened when Apple rolled out the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus as well, with developers required to update their apps to look correctly on the bigger screen, but things seem to be moving substantially faster now on the anniversary iPhone.