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Gmail Go, a Lightweight Version of Google's Email App, Launched on Android (techcrunch.com)
Google has added a notable addition to its line of "Go" edition apps -- the lightweight apps designed primarily for emerging markets -- with the launch of Gmail Go. From a report: The app, like others in the Go line, takes up less storage space on users' smartphones and makes better use of mobile data compared with the regular version of Gmail. The app also offers standard Gmail features like multiple account support, conversation view, attachments, and push notifications for new messages. It also prioritizes messages from friends and family first, while categorizing promotional and social emails in separate tabs, as Gmail does. But like other Go apps, Gmail Go doesn't consume as much storage space on the device. In fact, according to numerous reports, Gmail Go clocked in at a 9.51 MB download, and takes up roughly 25 MB of space on a device, compared with Gmail's 20.66 MB download, and 47 MB storage space.
Years ago my library had 2 "internet" computers on the DSL and 3-4 other computers that were a telnet client only.
You bet I taught my 15/16 year old self to check (POP3) and send (STMP) e-mail and chat (IRC) all from telnet.
Not sure how much "Lighter" you could get. I think a Pi3 has more computing power per core than those machines had total.
How heavy would a minimalistic POP3/STMP client with SSL support be?
Lightweight gmail sounds horrid. Gmail is already devoid of features and barely functional. Honestly I thought it was already very lightweight. In fact I would have said that was Gmail's only strength as a client.
So, how does this new app compare to the other, Inbox by Gmail?
That's really the important question, going forward this will be a necessary component to any meaningful e-mail client and most e-mail will make use of the advanced features.
Somehow I'm reminded of "Pokemon Go" and their goofball "Gotta Catch'em All" phrase. :)
E-mail in only 25MB? Wow! That's amazing!
You know, that would have really helped about thirty years ago when my drive was only 500MB.
Actually, that would have sucked thirty years ago, because thirty years ago, e-mail was easily under 5MB of total disk space. I do believe it was often under 3MB, and I'm pretty sure it was possible under 1MB.
It's e-mail. It needn't be complicated.
(oooooh, fancy sorting, that probably needs another 50 KB)
With built in "GO"atse support and integrated hot grits.
If it's so easy to make these apps smaller, why the hell are the "normal" apps so much larger? And why limit the Go apps to particular phones that are limited to particular geographic regions. Sounds like a scam to get people to keep upgrading their phones to me, which has always been the case I guess, but now they can no longer deny it.
I've been using the "lite" version of Facebook for some time and I don't miss the huge bloated "good" version.
I'm a pretty lightweight user so I don't notice the omissions the lite app has (probably has) and also has the chat integrated so I don't need to install yet another app just to reply to Facebook messages.
I don't know much about mobile development but they must be using some huge libraries/frameworks because I don't know how else many apps like Facebook weight over 100 MB in size
...just say NO.
Just friggin' stay in control of your own mail. You owe that to yourself, and to all the others.
Why don't they replace the bloated version with the Go version?
GMail is a system app on a lot (if not all?) of phones, it can't be removed. At best it can have its updates removed and be disabled.
Installing Gmail Go will only end up using even more storage space.
I can't stand their coloring book design with the big dots and wasted screen space. K9 mail and even Samsung's email client provide a better UI.
What is up with Google, they keep releasing shtty products or fucking up the ones they already have (photos, maps)
I would be excited but my phone has a ton of apps pre-installed that can't be uninstalled. If I could uninstall GMAIL I would switch to this in a heart beat or just use the web interface.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Why would I install a second Gmail app when I can't even uninstall the first one? This would take up even more storage space. Do these idiots at Google not even realise that even if you disable the Gmail app it still takes up storage space?
I have facebook lite on my phone and it's vastly superior to the modern facebook app.
Gmail has never felt too sluggish to me, but if this saves some ram or cpu time. I'll try it
Is that like Pokemon Go? Because I have a Gmail account, but I also have a favorite version of Pokemon. That's Pokemon Emerald. Pokemon Go sucks, and I suspect Gmail Go will, too.
Especially screw WhatsApp for not offering a mode to save those shitty videos to an SD-card instead.
Also screw all those Apps that just HAVE TO be saved to internal disk space, lest a stupid user installs them on an sd-card and then cannot use the app!
If you're on Android & care about email I strongly recommend K-9 Mail.
It is an open source mail client which is more like Thunderbird (i.e., it downloads messages locally) than the Gmail app. So you can open it even when you have no Internet and know that the email it downloaded will actually be available.
I travel quite a bit and found this ability utterly indispensable after a few times where I had things like boarding passes, hotel registrations, etc in my Gmail and wasn't able to easily load them in the Gmail mobile app. I now have a "Travel" folder in my Gmail which I've set to always download all the contents, so I know when I go to a new city it will have anything I need into it, accessible when I get there, with or without Internet access.
Maybe it has changed in the last few years but not having access to email that I had previously downloaded (i.e., "viewed on the cloud", which I suspect is what mostly happens with the Gmail app) was a total dealbreaker.
Supports multiple accounts, IMAP & POP3, even PGP if you care about that. The only thing that doesn't work great is search - it only will search your locally downloaded mail - and even then it seems to be a bit flaky. In these cases I use the Gmail mobile web interface to find things.
K-9 is a mail client on mobile that works much more like old school nerds would expect!