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   Gmail for iOS Enables Background Refresh, Saves Sanity

   Josh Centers

   As a Gmail user, the free [1]Gmail app for iPhone and iPad is mostly
   great. It has push notifications, support for Priority Inbox, access to
   all of my labels, and full searching across my entire email archive. It
   even shows my replies in email threads (unlike Apple's Mail app) and
   handles multiple email aliases. But there was one big snag: it was dog
   slow. I'd open a message from Notification Center only to stare at a
   multicolored dot for what seemed like minutes.

   But now that slowness is no more. [2]Gmail 3.0 now fully supports iOS
   7's Background App Refresh feature, so when you open Gmail, you'll see
   your email instantly, not an animated dot. So far, it doesn't seem to
   have any adverse effect on my battery life.

   To take advantage of the speed boost, you must have Background App
   Refresh enabled in Settings > General > Background App Refresh, and
   turned on specifically for the Gmail app.

   The Gmail app now also supports single sign-in with Maps, Drive,
   YouTube, and Chrome. Sign into one of the apps, and you're logged into
   all of them, without having to re-enter your password or two-step
   verification code.

   There are a few design tweaks too. For example, the back button is no
   longer a button, but an iOS 7-style text label, named for the label a
   message is tagged with.

   Now if Apple would let me set Gmail as my default email client in iOS,
   it would be perfect. Until then, [3]The Verge has a guide that explains
   how to set up a 'send only' Gmail account in Apple's Mail app, so you
   can still send email without having to store any in Mail on your
   iPhone.

References

   1. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gmail-email-from-google/id422689480?mt=8&at=10l5PW
   2. http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2014/03/get-your-mail-faster-on-gmail-ios-app.html
   3. http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/5/3732364/best-way-gmail-google-calendar-iphone-how-to

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