Email App Review: Gmail on Android
If you’re an Android user, we’re sure you’re already at least a little bit familiar with Gmail.
After all, it comes preinstalled on pretty much every Android phone in the world!
But does this mean it’s the best choice for Android users? Are there better options?
This article hopes to answer some of these questions by reviewing Gmail for Android devices in depth. We’ll explore its major features, pricing, pros and cons and what other users on the web think of the app.
By the time we’re done, we hope you’ll have a better idea of what makes Gmail special– and where it needs improvement!
What is Gmail on Android?
As we’ve mentioned, Gmail comes preinstalled on Android devices– making it a very popular email service to use for Android users.
Gmail opened itself to the public in 2007, offering a whole one gigabyte of free email storage. This may seem a little pathetic now, but at that point: it was unprecedented.
To pay for this service, Google introduced ads which were presented to users based on keywords in their message.
This was another revolutionary tactic for email services at the time. Quickly, this system gained immense popularity. By 2016, Google announced that Gmail had more than one billion users per month.
In the present day, Gmail remains an extremely popular option as both a browser and app-based email client.
Gmail on Android Features
Let’s break down some of the major features that make Gmail appealing to its many users:
1. Mail Sorting
Gmail has a great number of options to allow you to sort your mail to a very granular level using entirely automated, customizable systems.
This starts with Gmail’s three initial folders: Primary, Promotions and Social.
Google sorts your mail between these three locations automatically, using AI and keywords it finds in your messages. This can be somewhat hit or miss, but is definitely helpful for weeding out social media messages and promotional mail.
If you think it made a poor decision, you can choose to send mail between these inboxes manually as well.
Additionally, there is a Spam folder that automatically receives any mail that Google deems suspicious.
Here, mail has all aspects except plain text blocked to protect you from any hidden, malicious attachments in the email. You can unblock these parts of the message by manually bypassing the safety feature (at your own peril!).
There are regular complaints from users, however, that this spam folder has a tendency to eat important mail. This can be a pain when you miss vital messages because they’re sitting snugly in your spam folder.
You can also create custom folders for your mail. These can be renamed and moved around to your liking, letting you sort mail into as many categories as you want. You can also mark mail as important or “star” it.
A major boon of Gmail is its automatic sorting options. These come in two versions.
The first is entirely automatic, driven by AI and some Google magic. This is how Google sorts into its three default folders, but it can also be applied to custom folders using rules you set.
Second are the entirely manual sorting rules. Here you can make “rules” for incoming mail, singling out specific keywords, domains, contacts or other features of a message that Gmail will keep an eye out for.
Then, if any of these are found, you can tell Gmail to place the message in a specific folder.
This could be used for something like placing all emails coming from your boss into a single folder, or sorting out the emails that contain the word “bills”.
All of these features really help to lessen the headache you get while trying to sort through a messy email inbox. They save time and space since you can mass-delete messages in specific folders when you no longer need them!
2. Notification Options
In the modern age we tend to get way, way too many annoying pings on our phones.
This is especially true in the new work from home era, where we are often expected to be constantly connected to our worklife.
To combat this overflow of notifications, Gmail has some options that allow you to minimize unnecessary pings on your phone.
There is an automatic method of doing this using Google’s high priority notification option. This uses AI to decide whether an email is important for you to see quickly, and limits push notifications to only these messages.
Alternatively, you can set rules for this system yourself.
Similar to the sorting options, this lets you define senders, domains, keywords or other email features that mark them as “important”. Then, you’ll only get notifications for emails that fall into this category.
3. Cross-Platform Functioning
One of the biggest benefits of using any App in the Googleverse is its interconnectivity with other Google software. Naturally, this includes Gmail.
Within the Gmail app, you can easily add events to Google Calendar based on the content of emails.
You can also tap email contacts to instantly schedule meetings or messages through Google Chat, and even open Google Doc links through a built-in button that takes you directly to your Docs app!
All of these things make your life easier and quicker, with less jumping around between apps to try and make things play nice.
It can be especially useful for those who work in a team. It’s an easy way to share documents, meeting times, plans and connections without having to fiddle for ages with ten different programs.
4. Anti-Embarrassment Features
These small extra features in Gmail have probably saved people a lot of embarrassment in professional and social situations over the years.
The most notable one is probably the Undo Send function.
When you send off an email, Google offers you an “Undo Send” button for a short time while the message is still processing. If you hit this, it’s turned back into a draft in your inbox, and the addressee never receives anything.
This is essential for when you accidentally hit send too early! It’s a great safety net that stops a lot of accidental messages from escaping before they were meant to.
Gmail also has a feature that detects the word “attach”, or similar, in your message. If it notices this and there are no attachments on the email, it will let you know when you try to send.
This is another great backup for those who tend to forget to actually add your report to the work email you just sent. After all, no one likes sending the “Sorry! I forgot to attach it!” email to someone important.
Gmail’s system will also give you nudges for things that might need your attention.
This includes things like an email you haven’t responded to for a few days, or one you sent that might need a follow up. These are hit-or-miss for users, with some loving the features and others finding them incredibly annoying.
Luckily, you can turn these nudges off in the settings if you’re part of the latter group.
5. Confidential Mode
Confidential Mode is an excellent feature in Gmail that not many people know about.
When you create a draft, you can hit the Settings button and change to Confidential Mode.
This allows you to do things like set a passcode to open the email, set an “expiry date” for the mail that will delete it at a certain time, or even make it so that the email can be deleted remotely from the recipient’s inbox by the sender whenever they like.
All of this is especially useful for those sending important, delicate information through their email system.
6. Offline Access
If your internet suddenly dies or you’re in a remote location, Gmail has a couple of options available to you.
Most importantly, it will let you browse any emails you’ve previously loaded up on your device. This means you can reload your Gmail app before you leave areas with internet access, and then check your emails later whether you’re connected or not.
It also allows you to write and send emails while not connected to the internet. These are then stored until you’re back online, at which point they’re sent off to your desired recipients.
This can keep you productive even in moments of internet crisis!
7. Multiple Accounts
Though it can be a pain to create several accounts on Gmail, it’s fairly easy to switch from one to another once you have them.
You can simply swipe up or down on your profile picture in the top right to change between accounts. This can be super useful if you have both a work and personal account you need easy access between.
8. Email Signatures
Gmail has a fairly good system for email signatures, allowing you to set one up in the app or on desktop.
However, it should be noted that advanced features when creating an email signature are only available on the desktop browser version of Gmail. On the mobile app, you’re only able to add plain text to your signature.
On desktop, signatures can be customized with font colors, sizes, images and hyperlinks.
If you set up a more complex signature with these tools using the desktop app, it does carry over to the Android version.
This means you can use the desktop version once to set things up and then move straight back to your phone! However, it’s a shame you can’t use all these options on mobile as well.
9. Auto-Responder
Gmail has a built-in auto-responder function. This allows you to set up a pre-made email that will be sent out if anyone tries to message you within a particular time frame– normally while you’re out of office or on vacation.
This is extra handy for a work account so that work emails can be passed onto the right person quickly, even if you’re entirely disconnected.
It’s also a great way to fully unplug during your holiday without worrying about important mail sitting in your inbox!
10. Customizability
Gmail has some great customization options for your inbox.
Notably, it lets you switch around color schemes and background images, meaning you can set things up just the way you like it. It even lets you use custom images, or choose from a long list of presets.
This isn’t really a functional feature, so much as something that’s just kind of nice to have.
When it comes to the more functional customization options, Gmail still does fairly well.
One of the most useful parts you can customize is its swipe functions. By default, if you swipe left or right on a message it will be archived.
However, in the settings you can change a left or right swipe to sort the message into another inbox, delete it, or mark as read or unread.
This can really speed up your productivity when sorting through your inbox!
Gmail on Android Reviews: What Do People Think of it?
Before we continue, let’s take a look at some of the user reviews on the wider internet.
These should help to give a better idea of what the average user does and doesn’t like about Gmail for Android.
Dayna on SoftwareAdvice describes their experience with Gmail as very enjoyable, especially considering it’s completely free.
They say that their favorite features are the popularity of the app, its price, and how easy it is to learn and use. They appreciate that the program gets regular updates and new features.
On the other hand, Dayna is frustrated by the small storage and attachment limits. Apparently, this is especially annoying if you regularly send large files.
Stash on Capterra notes that Gmail covers every major feature a user might need in an email system. They like how easy the app is to use, and that it lets you schedule mail in advance.
Paired with the ease of adding contacts to an email, and the “anti embarrassment” features like the missing attachment warning and undo send, they are a big fan of Gmail’s systems.
However, they do struggle with the lack of more advanced formatting options when creating marketing emails. They are also frustrated by bugs, specifying ones that led to missing content in drafts and issues when using a picture in your signature.
Rajesh on GetApp explains that they love Google for its huge amount of features and “do everything nature”. They also appreciate that Gmail is free, easy to use on both mobile and desktop, and that it syncs easily with other Google programs.
However, they aren’t a fan of the small attachment size in Gmail. They also struggle with deleting or selecting large amounts of mail on the mobile app, and wish you could search your inbox based on date.
Ilan on GetApp says that they use Gmail daily under multiple accounts, using both a personal and business account.
They note that this multi-account setup lets them easily sort mail into sections, and keeps their business inbox free of content from things like social media or subscriptions.
They really appreciate the easy to use UI and filtering tools, as well as the ease of adding different types of attachments to your mail. However, he dislikes the small file size available to email attachments.
They note that with some phones now taking photos as large as 5 GB, it’s frustrating to be limited to only 15 GB per email.
This is especially annoying when a Google Drive upload, the alternative offered by Google if your attachment is too large, can take a long time.
How It Uses AI
Gmail for Android uses AI in several ways to enhance user experience:
- Help Me Write: This feature can create entire email drafts based on simple prompts. You can use this feature to write a new draft using a freeform prompt or refine a draft. For example, you can ask Gmail to write a birthday invitation, or write an introduction to a potential business contact. You can also use it to rephrase the draft, or make the draft more formal, more concise, or more detailed.
- Smart Compose and Smart Reply: These features were introduced by Google before the “Help Me Write” feature. While Smart Reply offers basic automated replies, and Smart Compose provides suggestions as you type, Help Me Write goes well beyond, creating a full email from a basic prompt.
- Automated Messages: Powered by Google’s proprietary AI, Gmail can compose automated messages in Gmail, text messages, and other Google apps.
Please note that these features are part of Google’s Workspace Labs, and you’ll need to join the program if you want to use AI to compose text in Gmail. Also, Google’s privacy policy for Workspace Labs is different from its standard Gmail privacy policy.
Gmail on Android Pricing
This pricing information is current as of January 2023.
The main version of Gmail is free, and most people won’t need to upgrade beyond this. The free version offers 15 GB of storage and all of the email tools that a normal user might use.
However, if this space isn’t enough for you, you might want to pay Google’s subscription rates for a bigger amount.
There are a few options available in this case. All prices are in USD:
💰 100GB for $2 per month
💰 200GB for $3 per month
💰 2TB for $10 per month
💰 10TB for $100 per month
💰 20TB for $200 per month
💰 30TB for $300 per month
Each of these subscriptions can be shared across a total of 5 users. They also come with other miscellaneous benefits depending on how much storage you buy.
Some of these include things like easy contact with Google experts for support, discounted hotel stays at certain places, auto backups, cash back rewards for Google store purchases, and other boons.
For almost every individual user, 15GB is plenty. There are very, very few people who’ll need anywhere near 2TB of space– but if you’re one of them, Google has you covered.
Gmail on Android Pros and Cons
Let’s break down the pros and cons of Gmail in a way that’s a bit easier to read:
Pros
👍 Integrated with other Google products, lots of tools for moving between these apps easily and efficiently where needed
👍 Easily integrates with Android systems, interacting nicely with things like your phone contacts
👍 Fast mail delivery, good servers and functioning thanks to Google’s systems
👍 Easy access across devices, lets you use mobile and desktop interchangeably
👍 15GB of space for free, paid versions available if you need more
👍 Pretty good AI filtering of messages into Spam, Promotions and Social
👍 Customisable sorting rules for mail
👍 Auto-responder built into the program, fairly easy to set up
👍 Lets you customize which mail gives you a push notification, and which doesn’t
👍 Undo send and missing attachment warnings help save embarrassing situations
👍 Spam protection and warnings are normally accurate, prevent dangerous mail from affecting you
👍 Customizable swipe features for easy mail sorting
👍 Works with multiple accounts, let’s you switch between them easily
👍 Has offline features like queued emails and preloaded mail reading
👍 Has email signature support
👍 Allows basic text formatting options in the app
👍 Automatic nudges if google thinks you might need to follow up on / reply to a message
👍 Auto reminders of things like bills, booked events and flights
👍 Neat, clean design that’s easy to navigate and not over cluttered
👍 Regular updates with new features
Cons
👎 Major privacy concerns due to Google’s poor track record, and it’s reading of messages to use its AI auto-sorting systems
👎 Ads that can blend in with emails and become obtrusive
👎 Issues with auto sorting, sometime resulting in important emails being lost in the wrong folder
👎 Issues with bugs, especially in the Android app
👎 Frequent updates with changes to the program, can become frustrating to learn new features each time
👎 Inability to remove Promotions / Social folders frustrated some people
👎 Mail is not always sorted chronologically by default, though this can be turned off in settings
👎 Some glitches with multiple accounts on one device
👎 Swipe gestures are easy to use accidentally, leading to mistakenly archived mail
👎 Email signature setup very limited on mobile version
👎 Some advanced features very hidden in the menus
The Bottom Line: Should You Use Gmail on Android?
This question really depends on your needs, but for most people Gmail has everything you could want in an email system.
The biggest benefit of Gmail for most users is its easy interconnectivity with other Google products.
This is especially true if you’re using Google apps in other parts of your life already!
Gmail easily syncs with these programs without much effort on your end, making your life easier and more efficient.
Google also rolls out regular updates to Gmail, keeping it ahead of the game when it comes to new features. This can be a blessing and a curse, depending on your personality.
For some, this means exciting new tools to use. For others, it means more time spent trying to figure out exactly how to use Gmail’s features.
Of course, the elephant in the room with any Google product is the ever-present concern of privacy.
If you’re using Gmail, you should probably expect that your private information will be in the hands of Google. Unfortunately, that’s a little unavoidable with their products!
If this bothers you, you might prefer a different email app; if it doesn’t, Gmail may be an ideal choice for you.