Google, whose relationships between its applications and how they run on rival Apple’s popular consumer electronics devices is often scrutinized, has altered its Gmail for iPad app to provide a full-screen compose view.
When Google originally unveiled the app in April, iPad owners who wanted to access their Gmail accounts from the tablet were dismayed to see a split-screen view of the inbox and compose view.
Check out the side-by-side comparison:
Here is the full-screen view:
What’s the advantage to the full screen? Google Mobile Software Engineer Craig Wilkinson summed it up thusly:
“More text is visible at once and there are no more distractions with messages on the side. We’ve also fixed problems that prevented scrolling on long messages.“
I don’t own an iPad, but it’s clear the split screen is annoying. People don’t enjoy it on their desktop, laptop or smartphone, so why would they prefer to access Gmail that way on their tablet computers?
App development for the iPad, and the tablet form factor overall, will be an iterative, ongoing process. That fits right into Google’s wheelhouse.
To try Gmail on the iPad, currently available in U.S. English only, go to gmail.com in Safari.