2.0 Web TutorialsOffline Gmail, Calendar and Docs are now available
You can connect to the Internet in more and more places now, but you probably occasionally find yourself in situations when you can’t use web apps because of spotty connectivity. Now you can stay productive even without a connection in Gmail, Calendar and Docs on Chrome, thanks to Google new offline capabilities for each of these applications.
As promised, Google brought back the offline mode for Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs. The updated apps use HTML5 features and no longer require the Gears plugin.
For Gmail, Google chose the easy way out and tweaked the tablet interface. You can only use it in Google Chrome after installing this app from the Chrome Web Store. The app lets you archive and label email, compose new messages and read the messages you’ve received, but it doesn’t have all the features from the standard version. The interface is more suitable for tablets, so this is more like a temporary workaround instead of a definitive solution.
Google Calendar and Google Docs let you seamlessly transition between on- and offline modes. When you’re offline in Google Calendar, you can view events from your calendars and RSVP to appointments. With Google Docs you can view documents and spreadsheets when you don’t have a connection. Offline editing isn’t ready yet, but Google knows it’s important to many of you, and they working hard to make it a reality. To get started using Google Calendar or Google Docs offline, just click the gear icon at the top right corner of the web app and select the option for offline access.
Some say Offline Google mail is not so god as expected. It’s only accessible using chrome and not other browser, and it is optimized for android. It has few features and does not meet all the necessities of an advanced Gmail user.
The only thing we can do is wait an hope that Google will integrate some more features and will make the offline application compatible with the rest of the browsers.