Guess what’s cooking at Google Labs? Not cooking anymore, rather already served but only to user of US or UK English. Offline Support for Gmail!
With Offline Support for Gmail you can now use Gmail without an Internet connection, just like you can with desktop mail clients like Outlook. Yes, web-based email is great because you can check it from any computer, but there’s one little catch: it’s inherently limited by your internet connection. But with Offline Gmail support, as per Google’s Andy Palay “as long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection.”
Here’s the video explaining how it all works:
This feature is experimental and hence you may face certain bugs that still needs fixing. You can find it via “Labs” under the “Settings” tab.
Follow these steps to get started:
- Click Settings and click the Labs tab.
- Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.
- Click Save Changes.
You are done. Now when your browser reloads, you’ll see a new “Offline0.1” link in the upper righthand corner of your account, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don’t already have it.