Gmail on the other Mail App

[romylam]

Hi

This is not exactly a Xoom question, but it will make or break my decision to get one.

I understand Android comes with 2 mail apps, one for Gmail and another for the rest. This creates a situation that if I have both, I cannot put both mail and calendar under one view since they are on separate apps.

My question then, is it possible to setup gmail on the other mail app ?

With iOS, a gmail account can be setup as a Microsoft Exchange account and receive push mail, does this work also on Android ?

My aim is to get both mail and calendars under the same app so that I can view them under one view.

Regards
Romy

 

[silvra7]

The other mail app sucks. You can't make folders and it doesn't retain your mail for more than a few days. You may be able to bring in your gmail through it but I wouldn't want to.

 

[mfriedman79]

I am not sure I understand what you are looking for. I use the stock client for my exchange accounts and the stock gmail application for gmail and can see both my exchange calendar and all my google calendars in the stock calendar app.

 

[romylam]

I am not sure I understand what you are looking for. I use the stock client for my exchange accounts and the stock gmail application for gmail and can see both my exchange calendar and all my google calendars in the stock calendar app.

I am totally new to Android and have not used one at all. I am using an iPhone but decided against an iPad and opted instead for an Android tablet. Under iOS there is only one mail and calendar app so you can view everything under one place, by that I mean all calendars under one view (same as universal inbox for mail)

So you are saying the stock calendar app will show both google calendar and others (exchange, Yahoo) under one view by default ? Or do you actually have to switch from one calendar to the other ?

Regards
Romy

 

[Lannister]

You can't make folders and it doesn't retain your mail for more than a few days.

Sort of correct...

You make folders while in the native mail accounts.
All my Yahoo folders for all 3 of my yahoo accounts show up.
My mail stays in the accounts and the titles of each mail displays on the widget on my desktop until I either delete them on my Xoom or delete them on my PC.

I use the stock client for my exchange accounts and the stock gmail application for gmail and can see both my exchange calendar and all my google calendars in the stock calendar app.

Yep...

 

[silvra7]

the calendar app on my phone brings in stuff from google and even facebook though I use the Droid Incredible which uses HTC's calendar. On the xoom the calendar brought in stuff from google but I don't have an exchange account and it won't add facebook as an account. In all likely hood you'd see the calendar, click on a day and see your events from google and your exchange for that day. There are other 3rd party apps that may do this better but are not yet optimized for Honeycomb. Again if you're really worried about email, at the moment the Xoom is not for you as you won't be able to store any messages on it for more than a few days. You end up having to hit a "load more messages" button which then loads messages that you've deleted as well.

 

[romylam]

the calendar app on my phone brings in stuff from google and even facebook though I use the Droid Incredible which uses HTC's calendar. On the xoom the calendar brought in stuff from google but I don't have an exchange account and it won't add facebook as an account. In all likely hood you'd see the calendar, click on a day and see your events from google and your exchange for that day. There are other 3rd party apps that may do this better but are not yet optimized for Honeycomb. Again if you're really worried about email, at the moment the Xoom is not for you as you won't be able to store any messages on it for more than a few days. You end up having to hit a "load more messages" button which then loads messages that you've deleted as well.

My main concern is really the calendar as I want to be able to see my exchange (company) calendar together with my google (personal) calendar under one view. So is Honeycomb having just one calendar app instead of two ? I presume there is still 2 mail apps ?

 

[silvra7]

one calendar app

 

[siscim23]

There are two mail apps, but I'm sure you could set up your gmail account on the regular app. The calendar shows a combination of all synched calendars. There is also an app called Touchdown that is similar to outlook, showing your tasks, calendar, email etc in a single app. Only thing I'm not sure of is if/how to set up more than one email account at the same time in Touchdown. Check it out in the market to see if that's what you're looking for.

 

[romylam]

Thanks for all who replied, you guys have been very helpful.

To sum it up, there are still 2 mail apps but 1 calendar app in Honeycomb.

That 1 calendar app will merge all the calendars from my google and exchange accounts.

Even for the non-gmail mail app, I have the option to setup gmail. This combined with my exchange accounts will let me have an universal inbox for both.

Thanks again !
Romy

 

[lostinspace]

You might check out K9 mail as an alternate mail app, it handles multiple accounts better than the stock app imho. I use it on my Incredible to access three pop3 accounts plus Gmail, and it works fine on the Xoom as well, even though it's not optimized for tablets.

 

[Complex Pants]

Thanks for all who replied, you guys have been very helpful.

To sum it up, there are still 2 mail apps but 1 calendar app in Honeycomb.

That 1 calendar app will merge all the calendars from my google and exchange accounts.

Even for the non-gmail mail app, I have the option to setup gmail. This combined with my exchange accounts will let me have an universal inbox for both.

Thanks again !
Romy

Yes.

The stock calendar app in honeycomb will integrate both your Google (gmail) calendar and your exchange calendar.

Honeycomb comes with 2 mail clients. The regular mail client can be used for any type of email (exchange, POP3, or IMAP). The Gmail client is specially designed to take advantage of the special features of the online gmail client (labels, archiving, etc) .

Android allows you to download other calendar and email clients so you can really get a solution that works best for you.