iPhone App
The Gmail iOS app includes the following great features, so you can use Gmail while you’re on-the-go with your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad:
Receive notification badges for new messages.
Read your mail with threaded conversations.
Organize your mail by archiving, labeling, starring, deleting, and reporting spam.
Keep track of important messages with Priority Inbox.
Auto-complete contact names as you type.
Send and receive attachments.
Search through all your mail.
Plus, you get some new features specifically designed for your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch:
Receive notifications and optional sounds for new messages.
Attach pictures from your photo albums.
Slide your label and mail counts in/out from the left side.
When composing messages, autocomplete email addresses from your Gmail contacts or your device contacts.
Refresh to check new messages simply by pulling downward.
The Gmail iOS app is available for iOS 4+ devices.
Google Apps users with accounts created before November, 2010 need to be migrated to the new accounts infrastructure to use this app. Contact your Google Apps administrator if this app doesn't work with your Google Apps account.
To download the Gmail iOS app, go to the Apple App Store and search for “Gmail.”
Badge notifications on the Gmail app icon display the number of unread messages you have in your Gmail account.
Sound notifications
Sound notifications alert you when there is a new unread message in your Gmail Inbox. iOS 5 users will hear a custom Gmail notification.
Manage notifications
To manage your notification settings, exit the Gmail app and then open the Settings app on your device. Scroll down and select Notifications and then Gmail. Notifications should be turned on for the device underSettings > Notifications*.
If you’d like to enable or disable badge notifications, toggle Badges > ON or OFF.
If you’d like to enable or disable sound notifications, toggle Sounds > ON or OFF.
Currently, the Gmail iOS app supports only Badge and Sound Notifications. Turning the Notifications Center setting to ON or OFF will not affect your Badge or Sound notifications. You will need to individually turn Badge and Sound notifications to ON or OFF to adjust your current settings.
*If notifications in iOS4 were turned to OFF when the Gmail app was downloaded, you will need to sign out then back into the Gmail app once you have updated your settings. This does not affect users with iOS5 on their device.
Refreshing Messages
The app will automatically check for mail when opened and you can manually refresh by pulling down the conversation list or tapping the current label name (such as Inbox) in the titlebar.
Accessing Labels
You can access your labels by touching the Menu on the top of the app. You can also view your labels by swiping the screen from left to right.
You can access Contacts two ways in the Gmail iOS App.
Using your Google Contacts
When you start typing an address or name in the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: field of a message you're composing, Gmail will automatically suggest contacts from your Contacts list. The app doesn't suggest contacts that are stored in your device's Contacts app. It only has access to your online Google Contacts.
For full access to your Google Contacts, you can open a new window in your browser and go to google.com/contacts.
Selecting your device's contacts
This will give you access to the Contacts app so the you can send mail to the contacts you have on your Apple devices. Simply press the To:, Cc:, Bcc: field of the message you are composing and the option to "Select from device’s contacts" will appear under the field.