Google rolls out changes to mobile Gmail web app, gets iOS-inspired design

By Trevor Mogg March 12, 2013

Google’s mobile Gmail web app has been tinkered with in the Mountain View workshop, with developers making some design changes to give it a similar look to that enjoyed by users of the Gmail app for the iPhone and iPad. The changes were announced on Monday and should already be showing up at www.gmail.com on Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Kindle Fire mobile devices.

In a post on its Google+ page outlining the new look, the web giant said that after receiving such a positive response to the changes that came with the iOS Gmail app update in December, its team had decided to implement many of the same features introduced then.

So besides a new-look visual interface, users of the mobile web app will be able to benefit from an improved search function with autocomplete as well as integration with Google Calendar.

Gmail Offline – a Chrome web app that lets users perform a number of email-related tasks without an Internet connection (such as reading and responding to messages) – has also received a makeover, with many of the same changes added.

While the update may not exactly knock you from your chair, it’s a safe bet that most users of the web app will find the new, cleaner design more pleasing to the eye, while its integration with Google Calendar is another feature some users are bound to find useful. Of course, serious Gmail users with an Android or iOS device will likely be in the habit of jumping straight to their Gmail app to check their messages, in which cases the changes to the web app will pass them by.

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Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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