Adroid and email

[mrich70]

I am considering getting the new Evo this summer. However my concern is the email capabilities of android 2.1. I currently have a blackberry Storm and love the email capabilities. Will I be able to conduct business as usual with the Android platform (Most of my accounts are gmail)?

 

[Cory Streater]

Gmail works beautifully on Android. After all, Android is very Google oriented. What concerns do you have? It syncs everything real time, and the user interface looks great.

Edit: Also, I would suggest going to the Incredible forum and download the user manual. Open it up and search the PDF for Gmail. You will find lots of screenshots, and descriptions of it's capabilities. The Gmail app on the EVO should be identical.

 

[nightfishing#AC]

The Gmail app is garbage (attachment handling is almost nonexistent.)

The stock Mail app is OK if you can live without PUSH (as a BB convert I made it 8-9 hours before I needed to get PUSH back.)

K-9 will "almost" recreate message handling a la BB (it is not AS good, but it is as close as Android can get you, ATM.) It adds an integrated INBOX, full IMAP PUSH for gmail accts and complete attachment handing (in and out)

k9mail - Project Hosting on Google Code

The BB is still better at email (and notifications) but the Inc/Evo etc will be better at everything else.

 

[Cory Streater]

I guess I retract my statement then. I didn't realize it had poor support for attachment handling. I primarily use my hosted Exchange account, and then use Gmail for less frequent emails. The interface seems fine to me and everything pushes real time. I did just send my Gmail account an email with an APK attachment, and you're right, Gmail wouldn't even let me save the file.

 

[nightfishing#AC]

It's odd the lack of function on the Gmail App, and especially so to those of us "spoiled" by BB's message handling.

I think they need to transfer a few of the devs working on Maps over to the Mail team LOL.

 

[mrich70]

Attachments are pretty important to me since I have to receive comps via email on the go often. If the push service is good I can deal with that. Can you set up mail accounts like you can with BB?? I don't actually use the Gmail app itself.

 

[FNFAN]

The Missing Piece

I moved over from BB; initially to the Incredible and then to the MotoDroid. I think the incredible would have been a fine phone if the battery capacity were higher, but that poor little wafer didn't seem to be able to support a 1ghz processor and the high resolution screen.

The thing that is missing from the Android OS is a universal in-box application which handles sms and multiple email accounts in a single stream. Until someone comes up with a decent application to handle that need (yes, I have tried both k9 and Executive Assistant) the BB will remain the standard for message handling.

I too would like to see some of the developers move over from programing unique little peripheral widgets and devising a feature rich, "one-stop-shopping" upgrade to the Android phones.

If anyone is aware of developers working on this problem, I'd love to hear more or even assist in beta testing. I really, really want to like my Droid but every once in awhile fire up the BB to pull out old contact info and I'm struck by the usefulness and intuitiveness of the the universal in-box

Thanks!

 

[dg417]

I admit message handling on the BB is better but I use the stock email app with 2 Gmail IMAP accounts and 1 Exchange account and it works well. I have no problem. It also gives me the combined email box which I don't use. I tried K9 but for some reason did not like the interface so I reverted back to the standard mail app.

 

[AggressorBLUE]

X2 on the gmail app being a major POS. I just received an invite for Google calendar, and the email program didn't recognize it as such. Over the past few days I've been amazed at how poorly supported googles own services are on THEIR OWN OPERATING SYSTEM. The balckberry gmail app itself was better than the one on android.

 

[FNFAN]

X2 on the gmail app being a major POS. I just received an invite for Google calendar, and the email program didn't recognize it as such. Over the past few days I've been amazed at how poorly supported googles own services are on THEIR OWN OPERATING SYSTEM. The balckberry gmail app itself was better than the one on android.

It's sad but true. With an open platform like this and as many "off-the-wall" apps as are available in the Market, how could there not be a simple universal bulletproof in-box for all messaging? Pushing text from one app to another doesn't seem like it should be rocket science. Nor does integrating a calendar function. Who ever is first with this for Android will make a mint.

 

[icebike]

@FNFAN:
Not every body wants a universal Inbox. Its often more than personal preferences, sometimes corporate can get involved and they don't like to see this.

Its not for every one.

Its sad that the iPhone handles Gmail better than the built in app.
The browser based gmail seems to work better as well.

K-9 is great, and I hope they merge in any of the Exchange goodies coming in 2.2

 

[icebike]

The Gmail app is garbage (attachment handling is almost nonexistent.)

The BB is still better at email (and notifications) but the Inc/Evo etc will be better at everything else.

How could BB be better than the imap push on K-9?

Its the fastest push client I've ever seen. I get mail notifications on my Nexus One faster than I get them on my desktop. Deletions, replys done on my desktop are reflected instantly on the phone and vise versa. If I read it on my desktop, it even clears the notification on the phone faster than I can get it out of my pocket.

K-9 is the best Imap IdleD client I've ever found. If you want good Gmail, enable Imap Idle support on your gmail account and handle it with K-9 instead of the gmail client.

 

[xj5x]

ive found touchdown to work real well.. but i have been noticing some locking up issues when dealing with large amounts of emails. i wish the native email on these supported more then just a months worth of emails at a time. ive got a guy that needs all his email.. all the time

 

[nightfishing#AC]

How could BB be better than the imap push on K-9?

Its the fastest push client I've ever seen. I get mail notifications on my Nexus One faster than I get them on my desktop. Deletions, replys done on my desktop are reflected instantly on the phone and vise versa. If I read it on my desktop, it even clears the notification on the phone faster than I can get it out of my pocket.

K-9 is the best Imap IdleD client I've ever found.

I use K-9 (and IMAP PUSH) and it is the best that Android has to offer, but still a far cry from bb.

IMAP (for all it's pluses) is still clumsy vs a true POP3 push with full control over messages on the server a la BIS/BES.


But, "we" all knew that coming in

 

[G-Money713]

K-9 can't hold a candle to BB. Mall droid is the closet possible I have seen on Android and it is still a not even close to BB. If I only cared about email, I would definitely go back to my BB right away.

 

[Qazme]

I get the same functionality from what I've seen that K-9 offers by having Gmail retrieve all my pop accounts. Still pretty good if you don't want to forward accounts though, highly suggested!

 

[FNFAN]

K-9 is the best Imap IdleD client I've ever found. If you want good Gmail, enable Imap Idle support on your gmail account and handle it with K-9 instead of the gmail client.

Icebike, based on what you're saying I'll take another look at K9.

I agree, not everyone wants a universal inbox, however, if we're talking about developing the Android platform into a resource acceptable to the business and government community, this is a must have. Even the IPhone developers/ Steve Jobs has indicated they're aware of this.

Sometimes it isn't about want, it is about need. Until this resource is available the BB will be the defacto corporate device of choice. The other aspect of Android that needs development is the security and encryption scheme. BB has been approved by the Feds for use in criminal history networks. In fact the FBI recently purchased BB World Phones for their field agents.

Before I start hearing "Well if you like the BB so much...." I have a lot of faith in the Android OS and believe that open source inspires lots of creativity. It's just that in terms of development, we need to keep an eye on the steak and not the peas.

 

[Qazme]

I decided to check out K-9 one more time to see how it performed versus the default Gmail app, and from what I could tell it does not have any better handling in Gmail than the default app. The only thing that it helps with is if you want to retrieve accounts other than Gmail. Just some food for thought.

 

[nightfishing#AC]

I decided to check out K-9 one more time to see how it performed versus the default Gmail app, and from what I could tell it does not have any better handling in Gmail than the default app. The only thing that it helps with is if you want to retrieve accounts other than Gmail. Just some food for thought.

The Gmail App does not support attachments. If that is not a concern, than the gmail app is probably sufficient for your use.

 

[G-Money713]

The only reason the government uses BB is because of BES. the BB is not any more secure than android for consumers. Government BB are locked down tight. You have very limited access to anything on the phone outside of email and phone calls. Depending on what department yosu are in, you may not even be able to access the sd card at all. BIS BB's are just as open as androids to attack. they get the same email from the same imap and pop accounts.