About 1.5 years after google gears came out Offline Gmail has finally been released, albeit as a labs feature.
It was fairly easy to enable\install. All it requires is google gears to be installed and a few clicks of next.
Once installed you get a new tab in the settings page for the offline mode settings and a little icon next to the settings link. Email syncing starts automatically. If you hover over the icon it gives the status of the offline mode and the ability to enter and leave Flaky mode.
Flaky mode results in the use of the offline files in preference to the online files, which is obviously useful if you are in an environment where your Internet connection is intermittent. I am yet to discover any disadvantages of the mode. For some odd reason you can only enter and exit flaky mode by hovering over the offline icon. I would have expected to see it in the offline settings tab.
Edit: It turns out you can't add attachements while in Flaky mode or offline mode which in the words of google themselves is "tooootally lame". In theory this feature will be added at a later date.
The only options that you can currently change in the offline settings tab is whether or not offline mode in enabled or disabled. The tab also tells you how far back Gmail will sync to your desktop, which apparently is based on your "email volume" - whatever that means. Attachments of emails are also automatically synced to your desktop, though this is done after the messages have been synced. It would be nice to disable to auto sycning of attachments and I can only assume this is going to be a future option.
If you write an email in offline mode, it is place in the outbox. Once you reconnect to the Internet, the email will be promptly sent. I might be wrong but I think you have to open gmail for syncing to work, which is no different from the likes of Outlook.
This had been a long time coming and I am happy that it has finally arrived.
Good work google - I am looking forward for future updates
Cwize1
Proud supporter of Scorpion Technology
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