Access your Gmail – Offline
Google rolled out the Gmail offline functionality on Tuesday evening. This functionality of browser-based offline access to Gmail will be available to everyone in few days.
What is Gmail Offline?
With the offline service, users will be able to load Gmail in their Web browsers even if they don’t have an Internet connection, and they will be able to read, star, label, archive, and organize e-mails. Offline Gmail will also allow users to compose new e-mails and move them to the Outbox, where they will wait until the user is online again to be sent.
Gears Platform
Google implemented office access to Gmail through Gears, a browser plug-in designed to provide offline access to Web-hosted applications like Gmail. This functionality uses the Gmail interface when disconnected from the Internet and provides you the same view as online.
Gears is currently used for offline access to several Web applications from Google, like the Reader RSS manager and the Docs word processor, and from other providers like Zoho, which uses it for offline access to its e-mail and word processing browser-based applications.
Many users manage their Gmail accounts offline through POP and IMAP protocols (supported by Gmail) that let people download and send out messages using desktop e-mail software like Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird and others.
However, the Gears implementation will let people work within the Gmail interface without the need for a separate PC application. When offline, messages will be put in a Gears browser queue, and the desktop and online versions of the accounts will be synchronized automatically when users connect to the Internet again.
Instructions to enable Gmail offline
- Sign in to Gmail and click ‘Settings’.
- Click the ‘Labs’ tab and select ‘Enable’ next to ‘Offline Gmail’.
- Click ‘Save Changes.’
- In the upper right hand corner of your account, next to your user name, there will be a new ‘Offline’ link. Click this link to start the offline synchronization process.
Technorati Tags: Google, Gmail, Offline email Access, Gears
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Comments
@Lyndi, this is indeed a great option. I didn’t had access to the Internet for the past 4 days. I was not able to check any of my emails because of that. This option would come handy!
Great news that i heard yest day.
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Great news. I will try this tonight.
Thanks for the info.
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@Lax, this in fact an old news. Just that it went Live few days ago.
@Nihar, This will be very useful in India. I’m sure it will be a big hit!
[...] recently introduced Offline Access for Gmail through Gears. No additional clients are needed to access Gmail when [...]
I personally am a huge fan of Thunderbird, which my boyfriend set up for me, and I was really skeptical at first because I didn’t think that it would be the same as using my Yahoo mail. He really likes it for his Gmail to access it anywhere, and I like the organization that I can use to make folders for all of my different clients.
Hey thank you. I knew about Google’s offline feature but didn’t know how to use them. I’ve enabled my Offline feature but one thing amazes me how Google easily supports Firefox and requires Firefox for things like Gears etc to be installed. I would like to see such features for Chrome as well in the future, thats the main reason I am not trying it out. Anyways, there are some other great addons in Labs too like un-send the email which I love the most.
This is something I would not have thought to be possible. It is actually amazing. I am off to start playing with this right now.
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