14 DAY TRIAL // Google has updated the Gmail Offline app, introduced last year for Chrome. The app makes it possible to catch up on emails and even write new ones without an internet connection.
However, the app is not truly an offline version of Gmail, it's an entirely new app with access to your Gmail data. It has several big drawbacks compared to the regular Gmail, but given the alternative - no offline support at all, users are glad to have it.
Google has now introduced several new features for the offline app, like the ability to control how many days of email to keep stored offline and keyboard shortcut support.
"When we first announced Gmail offline last August, we told you that it was only the beginning of our HTML5-powered offline journey. Since then, we’ve been listening to your feedback and today, we want to let you know about some of the key updates we’ve made to the Chrome Web Store app," Dave Stewart, senior software engineer, wrote.
"The first update - and a personal favorite of the team- is the addition of a settings page (look for the new settings icon). You can now choose whether you want to synchronize 7, 14 or 31 days worth of mail," he added.
Granted, if you have a month's worth of emails to catch up on, maybe you need to change something.
Another addition to the app, an important one, is support for attachments. All attachments are downloaded and made available along with the emails now.
There is also support for keyboard shortcuts, linked to whether you use them in the regular Gmail as well. Keyboard shortcuts can do wonders for your productivity.
Google boasts that the latest version of the app is also faster than ever and that messages and attachments are downloaded faster than ever.