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Offline Gmail just went Online

December 8th, 2009 by Ken

While email has become the most popular method of communication in this digital age, it’s limited to the internet, requiring a working connection for the delivery of the messages you draft. Still, even in those times when the internet isn’t available, we’d like to be able to read our email and draft new messages in the interim.  The internet isn’t an infallible resource, all of us experiencing outages of service –  at work and home. 

Google just made their Gmail service available offline, a feature that had only existed in their Google Labs, the experimental hub of upcoming services tested out in a beta format. This is a great alternative for those instances when your internet connection isn’t available yet you still find yourself wanting to manage the email in your Gmail account.

When activated, Google downloads a local cache of your current email using Gears, the google service that augments the abilities of your web browser. Once your email has been captured, it remains accessible, no matter if your connection is available or offline. So long as your connection is working, the cache of your email will remain current.

In offline mode, your Gmail features remain available, allowing you to do just what you’d normally do when using the service online – without the ability to send messages, of course. For those messages you want to transmit, all you need to do is “send” them as usual, though they’ll occupy your “outbox” until a connection is available. It’s quite similar to how SMS texts are handled on your smartphone, where the unavailability of services sends your texts into a queue that is emptied upon restoration of service.

With it publically available, the steps required to activate this service are the following:

• Click the “settings” link in the top-right corner of Gmail
• Click the “Offline” tab.
• Select “Enable Offline Mail for this computer.”
• Click “Save Changes” and follow the directions from there.

For a demonstration of how this service, here’s a video that accompanied the Google Lab’s offering:

 

Because this is still relatively new, there are bound to be some quirks that haven’t yet been ironed out. If you ever have any questions, never hesitate to give us a ring.

Related posts:

1. Checking your Gmail just became a lot more convenient.
2. An excellent Gmail extension for Chrome
3. Native Gmail app for iPhone
4. Put that call on hold in Gmail
5. Down goes Gmail! Down goes Gmail!

Tags: email, Gmail, Google, internet

2 Responses to “Offline Gmail just went Online”

1. Tweets that mention Offline Gmail just went Online | Geek Choice Blog -- Topsy.com says:

   December 8, 2009 at 1:02 pm

   [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Denise Brawn, Geek Choice. Geek Choice said: New Blog Post: Offline Gmail just went Online — You can read it here: http://bit.ly/6z6hA3 [...]
2. Ed says:

   January 7, 2010 at 1:16 pm

   Very informative content will subscribe to your RSS Feed.