It was a busy week with Google I/O last week and it appears an important announcement about the new Gmail update was missed. Google has announced that the offline mode for Gmail has begun rolling out.
The offline mode allows you to search, write, delete, and archive up to 90 days of messages even when you’re offline, as long as you’re using the new Gmail experience in the Chrome Browser (v61 or higher).
It’s not enabled by default, with users running the ‘new Gmail’ having to go to Settings and then to the new ‘Offline’ tab to enable Offline mode. Once there you tick the Enable Offline Mail checkbox and you’ll be presented with a number of options including how long to store email offline for – 7, 30 or 90 days, and choosing to delete offline files once logging off a PC.
Google has previously used the Gmail Offline Chrome app to enable users to use their mail offline, but will be switching that off in the near future in favour of this new native offline mode.
It’s pretty well implemented, so if you’re using the new Gmail go and turn it on and try it out.
If Gmail Offline Chrome is an app rather than an extension they had to find an alternative as support for Chrome apps is being discontinued sometime this year, I believe.