Offline Gmail coming to iPhone

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 19 Feb 2009 at 09:28

Google has revealed an offline version of Gmail for the iPhone 3G and Android, built on HTML 5 standards.

Vic Gondotra, Google's vice president of engineering, took the stage at the Mobile World Congress to demonstrate some concept projects the company is working on.

Perhaps the most interesting of these is an offline version of Gmail built on HTML 5's AppCache and Database standards.

Because all webkit-based browsers support these standards, Google says it could roll out the app right across the iPhone 3G, Palm Pre and Android-based handsets without having to specifically engineer it for that phone's underlying operating system.

This is a marked change from the version deployed on Symbian which was built for that OS.

Exciting as it is to see an offline version of Gmail on the iPhone, Google says the real benefit is that it could use the technology to swiftly roll out future apps to a wide range of smartphones.

As with the recently announced desktop version, based on Google Gears, the offline Gmail for smartphones includes labelling and starring messages and opening attachments.

Emails can also be composed while offline, with messages stored in the Outbox until an internet connection is established.

Gondotra eulogised HTML5 for its ability to bring one project to multiple devices without the need to re-code the app to work natively on each individual platform.

Gondotra also praised for the Palm Pre, which despite not being released yet, he described as "arguably one of my favourite devices."

There's no word yet on when Google will widely release the HTML 5 version of offline Gmail.