Corporate GMail working on the Blackberry
We use corporate GMail at GigaOM and I have tried vainly several times to get it working on my Blackberry. GMail Mobile would always tell me that it only worked with GMail accounts ending in @gmail.com but that’s not the case with corporate GMail. Today I wouldn’t take no for an answer and began checking any and everything to get this baby to work. I found that the current version of GMail for the Blackberry will now work with corporate GMail accounts! I don’t know when they fixed this as I haven’t checked it in a while. This is a great relief to me as I can now work with my GigaOM email right on the Blackberry. This current version will also let me use multiple GMail accounts and I’ve been able to switch back and forth between two different accounts, one corporate and one standard GMail account. Woot!
Just wondering…. why do you prefer using the gmail client instead of using the blackberry mail client to get your messages?
Ryan, that’s a good question. The Blackberry mail app won’t work with corporate GMail accounts, at least I couldn’t get it to work the last time I tried. The Google app is a very nice way to interact with it including working with mail labels and other native GMail tasks. It just works better and now the GMail Blackberry app also notifies like regular email when email comes in. It’s pretty full-featured.
Excellent answer…. I havent used the gmail app in about a year so the email notifications is a big thing. Is it push?
I’ll bet it’s really pull but it works like push so for me it’s the same.
They fixed this about 2 or 3 weeks back. It does sort of “push”. I will chime/vibrate you when a new email arrives, but does not give you a unread count like the native mail app.
Google has had a dedicated Google Apps Blackberry client for a while now. We wrote about it on WWD a while back. http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/01/09/use-gmail-mobile-with-google-apps-for-your-domain/
Also, when I was a BlackBerry user, I had no problem checking my GigaOM email using the native BB email client over AT&T BIS. Google provides some basic instructions here. http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=14748
Worked nicely, although it’s not quite “push” (more like what Apple calls “push” with MobileMe, actually).
The new GMail mobile app for Blackberry is indeed a pleasure to use. There used to be a dedicated Gmail mobile app for Domains, and I had it installed along side the standard Gmail mobile app for my gmail.com account. Now, the new client will do both, and it supports checking multiple Gmail and Gmail Domain accounts! Just enter all your accounts in the ‘Accounts’ section udner the Settings menu. Enjoy
Judi, thanks for pointing that out. As Clement said, the new Blackberry app eliminates the need to have a special version of GMail Mobile for domains. I just ran update in the Google Updater and it installed and works out of the box.