Google has released an updated version of the native Gmail app for iOS. It’s now available as a free download from the App Store.

The Gmail app initially launched about two weeks ago, but Google pulled it almost immediately after users reported that push notifications weren’t working and an error message popped up whenever they first launched the app. I’ve been using the app on my iPod touch for the last few weeks despite these limitations, and I’ve found it to be generally faster and easier to use than the Gmail web app, if not quite as slick as the Gmail app for Android.

Gmail 1.0.2 for iOS supports touch-based gestures that let you refresh your inbox by swiping down, or view your labels by swiping from left to right. You can also send email messages with file attachments.

Google says future updates will improve the way images look, support for multiple accounts, and better notifications.

It’s been about four years since the iPhone hit the market, and more than three years since the App Store opened for business. So it’s about time Google finally got around to releasing a native Gmail app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad… which is exactly what the company did today.

Update: The app has been pulled from the App Store temporarily while Google fixes a bug. 

Update 11/16/11: And now it’s back and everything seems to be working properly. 

While Google’s mobile web app for Gmail is pretty good, the new app is faster, offers a cleaner look, and adds a number of features that you don’t get with the web app.

You can download Gmail for iOS for free from the App Store.

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Gmail mobile web app

There’s a rumor going around that Google has finally developed an official Gmail app for iOS and submitted it to Apple for approval. It will allow users to send and receive email without firing up a web browser — and it will support push email, which is something the web app simply can’t do.

Don’t get me wrong, Google’s mobile web apps for Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar, and other services are excellent demonstrations of just what you can do with a modern mobile web browser.

But a web app doesn’t collect messages for reading offline when the browser is closed. It doesn’t send you notifications when new messages appear. And even if you link the native iOS Mail app to your Gmail account you don’t get Push notifications — or the ability to use Gmail features such as Priority Inbox, starred messages, or labels.

MG Siegler reports that those are likely just some of the features that will be included in the native Gmail app once it’s approved… if it’s approved.

When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, Steve Jobs was almost giddy with excitement over the prospect of the web browser as the most important app. If developers wanted to write apps for the iPhone, all they had to do was create web sites that could be accessed in Mobile Safari.

It didn’t take long for developers to insist that the browser wasn’t good enough, and that they wanted a native software developer kit, and the following year Apple caved, launched the App Store, and the rest is history.

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s taken Google four years to jump on board with a native Gmail app. Google shares Jobs’ early vision of web apps replacing native apps, even though the company has been building native apps for Android for the last few years. But the truth is that there are still some things that work best in a native app which is more tightly integrated with the operating system than a browser-based app.

Update: The Gmail app for iOS is now available for download.

Google Android users can now configure the Gmail app to only synchronize the most important messages to save on bandwidth and power consumption. All you need is the new Gmail 2.3.5 app from the Android Market and the Priority Inbox feature which automatically detects the messages you’re most likely to want to see, based on your past behavior.

Another new feature is the ability to assign different ringtones for each Gmail label or filter.

Gmail 2.3.5 can also remember whether or not you want to show pictures in messages from a specific sender, or turn of sticky message actions in landscape mode or in both landscape and portrait mode.

You can download the updated Gmail app from the Android Market. It will replace the app already on your phone.

Google has rolled out an update to Google Sync which offers new capabilities for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users who synchronize their Google data with their mobile device.

The update allows users to:

• Search for any message in their Gmail accounts using the iOS mail app, even if the messages haven’t been downloaded.
• Accept, decline, or edit appointments using the iOS calendar app.
• Use the “send mail as” feature when composing an email message, allowing you to choose from any email address linked to your account.

Google Sync is available as a free service, but you have to set it up on your mobile device. You can find instructions at the Google Mobile support site.

The folks behind the popular social networking app TweetDeck had a “Hack Day” recently, where designers took a break from their regular tasks and whipped up some new ways to use TweetDeck’s apps. That includes an option for emailing tweets to yourself so you can read them on your phone when you’re offline, and the Tweet-As-You-Go design you can see above, which lets Android users send messages and walk at the same time, by displaying your real world environment as seen through your phone’s camera.

Other ideas include a native desktop application for Windows, Mac and Linux which users the same interface as the TweetDeck app for Google Chrome (called ChromeDeck), and a Gmail notifier.

You can find more hacks at the TweetDeck blog and vote for your favorites. The company may implement them into future TweetDeck software.

TweetDeck lets users view messages from multiple Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and Google Buzz accounts all in one place.

Google has rolled out a minor update to the mobile web version of Gmail which lets you undo certain actions. It’s a lot easier to accidentally delete a message or hit other wrong buttons on a tiny smartphone screen than in a desktop web browser, so the move makes a lot of sense.

Here’s how it works. When you archive or delete a message, add or remove a label, or move a message a yellow bar will pop up at the bottom of the screen letting you know what you just did — and letting you click an undo button.

The undo option only lasts for a few seconds so it won’t help you retrieve that message you deleted yesterday. But it can make the experience of using Gmail in a mobile browser much easier today.

The Gmail mobile web app is available when you use most HTML5 capable web browsers on Android, iOS, or BlackBerry devices.

Google has updated several of its mobile apps and web pages over the past few days. The Gmail web app now looks the same on newer BlackBerry phones as it does on Android and iOS devices. Google News now displays properly in the Opera Mini web browser. And Google Translate now supports more spoken languages.

Gmail for Blackberry

Google basically has two versions of its mobile Gmail site. One is built with HTML5 and functions almost like a native app, letting you check boxes and interact with on-screen menus without loading a fresh page. The other presents an ugly little list of links and looks like it was designed to run on the smartphones of 2002. Up until recently that ugly interface was the only option BlackBerry users had.

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