- There is no "gmail" API. It either looks like imap/smtp to your app, or pop3/smtp.
- POP3 is completely braindead, so moving on...
- Imap doesn't natively expose many gmail features. imap doesn't know about "Archiving" and "Labelling", so you have to map those to things like deleting and folders. There's an impedance mismatch.
- Exposing a search interface with all the functionality and responsiveness of the web app is painful. Sparrow does it nicely, in my opinion.
- You sometimes can't login and don't know why. Sparrow does this badly. Once, Sparrow just started putting red dots on my account and all it said was "authentication failure". I actually had to dig in to Sparrow's (thankfully provided) JSON logs to see that the error message was that "non web clients are locked out on your account". In turn, I had to just KNOW that this meant I had to do Google's unlock captcha. But they don't make that easy to find, I had to google it. Imagine my mom trying to troubleshoot that. I don't think so.
- Enabling 3rd party access to gmail via Imap is not a trivial exercise for the non-technically inclined. Even more so if you have two-factor authentication turned on. Imagine my mom trying to set that up. I don't think so.
- Imap and SMTP aren't the most trivial of protocols to implement correctly and completely.
- Stupid little things. Like, right now if I want to have my Google Voice number ring to Google Chat, I have to have my GMail window open in the browser (someone correct me if there's a better way). If I already have it up just so I can receive phone calls, why do I ALSO want to have a standalone email client open?
Making/receiving calls in Gmail is the reason I stick with the web client. I don't actually use the chat much, but I'm a huge fan of the simplicity of Google Voice's integration with Gmail.
I use GrowlVoice for Mac for almost all my SMS, and I jailbroke my iPhone 4S and installed "Phone GV Extension" and "SMS GV Extension", which makes GV work seamlessly with Apple's native phone/messages app. If GrowlVoice somehow found a way to use the AV plugin that Gmail chat uses so I could make calls through the app, I'd be one happy camper.
Comments
- There is no "gmail" API. It either looks like imap/smtp to your app, or pop3/smtp.
- POP3 is completely braindead, so moving on...
- Imap doesn't natively expose many gmail features. imap doesn't know about "Archiving" and "Labelling", so you have to map those to things like deleting and folders. There's an impedance mismatch.
- Exposing a search interface with all the functionality and responsiveness of the web app is painful. Sparrow does it nicely, in my opinion.
- You sometimes can't login and don't know why. Sparrow does this badly. Once, Sparrow just started putting red dots on my account and all it said was "authentication failure". I actually had to dig in to Sparrow's (thankfully provided) JSON logs to see that the error message was that "non web clients are locked out on your account". In turn, I had to just KNOW that this meant I had to do Google's unlock captcha. But they don't make that easy to find, I had to google it. Imagine my mom trying to troubleshoot that. I don't think so.
- Enabling 3rd party access to gmail via Imap is not a trivial exercise for the non-technically inclined. Even more so if you have two-factor authentication turned on. Imagine my mom trying to set that up. I don't think so.
- Imap and SMTP aren't the most trivial of protocols to implement correctly and completely.
- Stupid little things. Like, right now if I want to have my Google Voice number ring to Google Chat, I have to have my GMail window open in the browser (someone correct me if there's a better way). If I already have it up just so I can receive phone calls, why do I ALSO want to have a standalone email client open?
Making/receiving calls in Gmail is the reason I stick with the web client. I don't actually use the chat much, but I'm a huge fan of the simplicity of Google Voice's integration with Gmail.
I would kill for a Google Voice app! I can't stand missing pretty much every call because I don't have Gmail open.
I use GrowlVoice for Mac for almost all my SMS, and I jailbroke my iPhone 4S and installed "Phone GV Extension" and "SMS GV Extension", which makes GV work seamlessly with Apple's native phone/messages app. If GrowlVoice somehow found a way to use the AV plugin that Gmail chat uses so I could make calls through the app, I'd be one happy camper.