Gmail for iPad and iPhone Just Released

Hot on the heels of Facebook releasing their app for the iPad and iPhone, Google announced today, November 02, 2011, that they have finally released their Gmail application for the iPad, iPhone, and the iPod Touch.

“We’ve combined your favorite features from the Gmail mobile web app and iOS into one app so you can be more productive on the go.  It’s designed to be fast, efficient and take full advantage of the touchscreen and notification capabilities of your device.”

With that in mind, there are some key features included in the Gmail application:

Time-Saving Features

• On the iPad, you can use the split view to navigate your inbox, and read your emails at the same time.
• Message Alert will notify you of any new messages with push notifications.
• Autocomplete will automatically fill in your email addresses from your address book by just typing a few letters.
• The Search feature allows you to search all of your messages across your whole mail account.
• Priority Inbox allows you to prioritize your messages for easy retrieval.
• Threaded conversations are great for reading the whole conversation without having to open several messages.
• Other basic features are included like: Report Spam, Labeling, Starring (marking as favorite), and deleting.
• Easy scroll ability to quickly view your messages.
• Pull down your inbox (by swiping downwards while at the top) for easy refreshing to keep up with your messages.
• Swipe right to view your labels from your inbox.

Efficient Design

• Priority Inbox allows you to prioritize your messages for easy retrieval.
• Threaded conversations are great for reading the whole conversation without having to open several messages.
• Other basic features are included like: Report Spam, Labeling, Starring (marking as favorite), and deleting.

Easy User Interface

• Easy scroll ability to quickly view your messages.
• Pull down your inbox (by swiping downwards while at the top) for easy refreshing to keep up with your messages.
• Swipe right to view your labels from your inbox.

Finally, another great app that has been long overdue has arrived at the iTunes Store.  You can download Gmail from the iTunes App Store here.

Update: 11/02/11 – 3:04 pm EST.

Hours after Google launches their iPhone/iPad app, they have pulled it from the App Store.

“The iOS app we launched today contained a bug with notifications. We have pulled the app to fix the problem. Sorry we messed up.” says Google on their Twitter feed.

Apparently, Google launched a bug filled app that when opened, the app returned: “no valid ‘aps-environment’ entitlement string found for application.” .

Why would Google launch an app that had obvious bugs like this one?  Did they not even try the app first?  What do you think?

Update: 11/16/11 – 3:00 pm EST.

Google has finally re-released its application.  See Gmail Application Returns to iOS App Store for more details.