New left-side message list in GMail. Make it stop please! :-)

[jbsjbs]

Not sure when this arrived/changed but today for the first time when I open a message in GMail it's dedicating fully 1/3 of the screen real estate not to the message but to a list of messages I'm not reading. With all the normal caveats about UI changes and not freaking out I have to say this one I'm finding pretty depressing. Many of the emails I read most often on my tablet now no longer fit width-wise so I'm having to slide back and forth on every line (see the Groupon message below for example).

I've looked for somewhere to turn this off but I'm coming up blank.

It only applies in portrait mode and the only changes I've made of late is the 4.0.4 Android update discussed in another thread and installing Chrome last night from the Play Store. Did one of those actions cause this? And whatever caused this is there any way to make it stop?

I've attached a screenshot below in case my description did not make sense. Thanks in advance for any tips!

--Jason

 

[spensergig]

Has been happening on my 7 plus for a while now, at least when i'm in landscape mode.
I don't get the left-side list in portrait mode, but I do in landscape.

I run 4.04 stock, with stock browser.

If you find a solution, please let me know too.

----------------------------------------------
Edit to clarify - I'm speaking about using the gmail app. When I tried gmail.com in the browser, it gives me the left-sed list in both portrait and landscape mode.

 

[jbsjbs]

Same here, I'm using the GMail app and it only applies in landscape mode.

I'm always reluctant to declare any feature so clearly critical that there's no possible way someone else could have a different preference but wow, 1/3 of the screen real estate? That's just incredible to me, especially when it makes so many (especially newsletter-type messages) unreadable on the device.

I'm still in the return window for my Galaxy Tab (bought it at Costco). I use it primarily for GMail and Evernote. I'm going to check my wife's Nexus 7 tonight to see whether it's doing the same thing. If it's not, I might be a convert (which would be sad to me, I really love[d] by Galaxy Tab.

I keep swiping at the side panel to make it collapse a la Evernote, but to my continued surprise it just sticks there. Mocking me. ;-)

 

[SithLord0498]

This occurred in the latest app update.

From the "What's New" section on the app's Play page:

Android 4.0 (ICS) and up:
- Improved 7" support:
- Bug fixes and performance improvements

I agree that 1/3 of the screen is far too much real estate to use precisely because it renders newsletter-type messages unreadable without scrolling horizontally. A 25/75% split would've been better IMO.

 

[jbsjbs]

Thanks SithLord0498! I must have run the Gmail update inadvertently as well. Based on your info, I went and downloaded the GMail app 4.0.5 from:

Google Gmail 4.0.5 [Android 4.0+] - APKTOP

and installed it over the newer 4.1.2 version. Now my GMail is useful again.

I sincerely hope they change this back. They might call that optimized for 7" tablets, but to me such a large side panel would be more appropriate for a 10" tab. If they're going to keep it, they could easily make it a sliding panel such as Evernote's. If the message list were *available* I would probably use it, but I don't want it to be a permanent fixture.

Thanks again for the info.

--Jason

P.S. For anyone else interested in this solution, you can download the apk from the link above and then sideload it (I used Dropbox) to your Android device once you've authorized 3rd party apps.

 

[spensergig]

Thanks for the idea. For my 7 plus, all I had to do was 'uninstall updates'. That reset it to 4.0.5.

 

[spensergig]

And a followup... The app auto-updated a few hours later. I did the uninstall updates again, then went to play store and unchecked the allow automatic updates box. We'll see if it holds now.