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Google tweaks Gmail.com for iPhone, iPod Touch

Google's latest improvements to Gmail on the iPhone and iPod Touch affect scrolling and navigation.

Jessica Dolcourt Senior Director, Commerce & Content Operations
Jessica Dolcourt is a passionate content strategist and veteran leader of CNET coverage. As Senior Director of Commerce & Content Operations, she leads a number of teams, including Commerce, How-To and Performance Optimization. Her CNET career began in 2006, testing desktop and mobile software for Download.com and CNET, including the first iPhone and Android apps and operating systems. She continued to review, report on and write a wide range of commentary and analysis on all things phones, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds. Jessica began leading CNET's How-To section for tips and FAQs in 2019, guiding coverage of topics ranging from personal finance to phones and home. She holds an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (UK).
Expertise Content strategy, team leadership, audience engagement, iPhone, Samsung, Android, iOS, tips and FAQs.
Jessica Dolcourt

Google has tweaked Gmail.com for the iPhone's Safari browser.
Google

Google has been fine-tuning its mobile in-browser Gmail experience on the iPhone and iPod Touch for years, and over the course of time, the addition here and modification there has added up to a very usable in-box experience in the spirit of Gmail on the desktop, if not its identical feature sets and dimensions.

This week's tweaks focus on iPhone and iPod Touch handsets running iOS 4 in English. They nail down the design of the navigation menu, which Google has been experimenting with on its iPhone-optimized Web site for the past few weeks. Now, the toolbar is fixed in place while you scroll, rather than following after you scroll through a message or the in-box.

Google also performed some back-end tune-ups on the scrolling speed to cut out the lag time between the motion of your finger and the motion of the in-box contents. We won't deny it: there's no delay.

We'll still use the e-mail in-box on our iPhone 4, but we will say that the mobile Gmail experience is improving, one tweak and turn at a time.