Android 2.2.1 Update – New Android Gmail and more
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The Android 2.2.1 Update recently came out for various Droid phones. If you haven’t received your update yet…it should be coming soon.
And if you absolutely positively must have the new Gmail features… well, we’ll tell you how to get that in our Power Tip below.
Google released a new Gmail update for Android phones on December 9, 2010. And the update to the Froyo Android operating system came out the next day as version 2.2.1.
Not only was Gmail updated, but there were changes to the Twitter widget, the Amazon widget and the News & Weather widget. Oh, and sync issues for Microsoft Exchange were fixed as well.
Android 2.2.1 Update – New Droid Gmail Features
The Android 2.2.1 updated items that have us the most excited are the improvements to Gmail. Items like Priority Inbox, Reply Inline, changing your From Address, and changing Reply to Reply All easily. Let’s take a look at all these features more closely.
Android 2.2.1 Update – New Android Gmail Priority Inbox
For those using “priority inbox” in Gmail on your desktop computer, the Android 2.2.1 update now makes it possible to use that filter on your Droid phone, too! Now, when you access your inbox, you see messages with white backgrounds (indicating unread messages) and messages with grey backgrounds (indicating read messages).
Priority messages will have a little yellow marker indicating they are important. You can now filter your email. The system now monitors your behavior to help determine what is more important vs. less important. You can also change your settings so that you only receive an alert for more important emails. To turn on Priority Inbox on your Droid phone:
- Go to Gmail on your phone
- Select Menu
- Select More
- Select Settings
- Select Priority Inbox.
Watch this lesson on video: Android 2.2.1 Update Video – New Droid Gmail and more.
Android 2.2.1 Update – New Droid Gmail “From” Feature
The Android 2.2.1 Update now allows you to select a different email address to send messages from. Meaning if you have set up more than one email address for your Gmail account on your phone, you can select which “from” address you will use. To change which email address to send from:
- While composing a message, press anywhere at the top in the “from” email address area.
- A list of your Gmail account’s authorized email address will appear, select the one you want.
Android 2.2.1 Update – New Droid Gmail Enhanced Reply All
The enhanced Reply All feature in the Android 2.2.1 update is one of those simple changes that make a big difference. At any point in time when you are replying to a message, you can now change it to a “Reply All” or “Forward” or basic “Reply” request.
In the past, once you selected the type of reply, you were stuck with it. Now you can change your mind and Reply All if you want. To change a reply message to a Reply All (or other choices):
- Begin by reading a message.
- To Reply, Press the arrow next to the word “Reply”.
- Select Reply All or Forward.
- Continue with your message.
Android 2.2.1 Update – New Android Gmail Reply Inline
Ok, so I just made a big deal about the Reply All feature above, but this next Android 2.2.1 Update is really stellar. You can now Reply Inline. Meaning, you can type right in the middle of an email you received.
Let’s say someone asks you a couple of questions in an email and you want your answers right next to each question. You can now choose to Reply Inline and scroll down to the sender’s original questions and type your answers in the middle of their email. This is not a new concept for desktop software, but an awesome update for Droid Phones. To reply Inline:
- Reply to a message (see above).
- Scroll up to the top of your message.
- Press Respond Inline.
- Press the text area.
- Add your text to the original message where you need to Inline with the original text.
Android 2.2.1 Update – New Droid Gmail Send And Draft Buttons
There are two new buttons in the Android 2.2.1 Update. This new Droid Gmail update now uses two Icon buttons to represent Send and Draft.
At the top of your message, on the right side you have two Icons. The left Icon is an envelope with an arrow. It’s the “send” button. The one on the right is a computer disk and clock. It’s the “draft” button. Select the Draft button to save your email to send at a later time.
Watch this lesson on video: Android 2.2.1 Update Video – New Droid Gmail and more.
- Use My Droid “Power Tip”
Use My Droid “Power Tip”
For those who haven’t received their Android 2.2.1 Update, you can still get the New Android Gmail update! You must have Android 2.2 system or higher (sorry if you only have 2.1).
To see what version of the Android operating system you currently have on your phone:
- Press Menu.
- Press Settings.
- Scroll to About Phone.
- The phone info screen will have your “Android Version” number.
To install the Gmail App, scan this barcode or go to the Android Market.
In order for the barcode to work, you will want a barcode reader like NeoReader.
We have other great tutorials available, too. Check them out on our Droid Tutorial page.
Watch this lesson on video: Android 2.2.1 Update Video – New Droid Gmail and more.
Read other Droid Tutorials or check out the Droid Tips area.
Android 2.2.1 Update - New Android Gmail and more - Please Comment
Has this Android 2.2.1 Update – New Droid Gmail and more tutorial been helpful? Do you have other tips you would like to share with others? Please leave a comment below – Thanks.
Tags: android, Android 2.2, android 2.2.1, android phone, gmail, priority inbox, system, update, upgrade
22 responses to Android 2.2.1 Update – New Android Gmail and more
I just used the new gmail features on my droid x. They’re awesome. Thanks for the write-up, I couldn’t figure out what the inline reply was.
I think I found a bug though. If you select a different from address then save as a draft and leave the app, when you return, from will default back to your main gmail account. Its an awesome feature though. I usually haven’t replied to business mails on my phone, cause I didn’t want to send with my personal gmail account.
Interesting discovery re. the Draft “from” address thing. I’ll have to try it sometime. Sending from various email addresses is a really cool thing… makes the phone more versatile for emailing.
Great! Thanks especially for clarifying the utility of ‘respond inline’.
don’t know if you can help with this…but give it a try..
Ok..I have a google phone (Samsung GalaxyS 4G) and have an icon that says “accounts and sync”…I told it to sync my face book, my yahoo email and gmail…but what I want to do is IMPORT all my contacts from my phone to those sites…or at least gmail..
How so you do that?
@Ginger I do not believe your phone can send its contacts to Facebook, Yahoo email, etc. What you may be able to do is go to those programs and tell them to import contacts from your Gmail account (which is updated by your Droid Phone)… that is not a sync performed by the phone, but since your Gmail account is synced by your phone, it should have the latest data on it… using the other programs to grab the Gmail data may be the best option.
Ok, thanks!
A friend told me that her droid (not same mfgr) was able to sync to her gmail account…but I didn’t know how to do that…in case the phone was “out” – good to have all your friends phone numbers, etc…as a back up!
I can’t seem to do a group email. I have about 30 emails in which I made a group email label and would like to compose email and in the “TO” I would like to put the label name so it will automatically send it to those 30 emails. Some reason it won’t work for me. Any suggestions.
@lynn Good question… I can’t seem to make my Gmail “Groups” work on my Phone’s email either… Groups in the TO: area do work on my Browser version of Gmail (on my computer) but when I tried to “cheat” and log into Gmail via a browser on my phone, it again did not show any Groups as an option for sending TO: … weird.
Guess we are asking too much from a phone?lol Thanks I even called my phone provided (verizon) and they didn’t know.hummmm
google apps user. droidx v 2.2.1
No reply inline option to select from. Gmail v 2.3
Can only reply and toggle off/on include quoted text, but no reply inline. Have user that needs to reply inline so they can edit the text. Replicated on another phone. no reply inline function. help.
@ben Normally the Reply Inline is not visible until you have hit Reply… then you are presented with “Include text” on the left and “Respond Inline” on the right. Are you not seeing the “Respond Inline” button when you choose to Reply to an email? Perhaps there is a semantics issue on my part since The button says “Respond Inline” but I and others call it “Reply inline”… but the proper function is there all along?
AT&T just announced availability of Android 2.2 from Samsung for the Galaxy S / Captivate. It includes all the features described in this article. Going to the Market and finding GMAIL does say an update is available, but I cannot see any difference in function when comparing 2.2 level phones with the gmail update and without the gmail update.
Sending to groups is still not available.
I have updated my GMail app to 2.3.4.1 yet I continue to see a GMail icon in my upper left hand corner. It’s not the new mail notification M rather it looks exactly like the icon on my phone. Tried powering off a few times to see if that’s what it needed but no dice. Is this a known issue?
@David Not sure I understand your concern. The mail notification “M” in the top notification bar is simply there to tell you that you have unread mail in your account. It has nothing to do with any updates, has been there for a while and I expect it will stay no matter what ver. of Gmail U R using. If you check your email and read all your messages, the M in the notification bar should go away, but will come back when you have a new message.
Thanks for the reply. I assumed since I had opened the app and looked my Inbox, that would be sufficient to make that go away. Thanks for explaining. I will try to use follow up flags or something other than unread as my indicator I need to do something with the email.
I have a Samsung galaxy next with android 2.2.1 so I confirm that what you say is true. But what I would like to ask you is: There is some way to download the andorid 2.3 on my phone?
@davide If your phone is not “ready” for the update, then no you can’t download a new version of the system to your phone unless you “Root” your phone. We don’t discuss Rooting here on this site but there are plenty of sites online that do. You can verify if there is an update of the system for your phone (and download it) from the following menu choices: Menu>> Settings>> About Phone>> System Updates
I have a Samsung galaxy GT-I9003 with 2.2.1 firmware version.
I was using my Gmail on my android without any issues until lately when my gmail stopped working. when i connect to Wi-Fi i get a Sign-in error notification. On clicking it i get a message saying ” the phone cannot access your google or google apps account. Re-authorization is required. ”
When i re-auth i get nowhere, the page closes and i am back on my home screen.
Need help to get access to my gmail account on android.
@AndroDee Are you aware of any changes you may have made to your Gmail account (like 2-step verification adjustments)? If you have changed your security level on how you log in, that may have changed what you have to do to get your phone accessing Gmail again. I recently adjusted my Gmail login requirements and that forced me to use an “application specific password” to get gmail to continue working on my Droid phone. If nothing has changed that you know of, then I suggest going to http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?hl=en_us&topic=21233 for Android Gmail Help from Google (which BTW also walks you though what you need to do if you turned on 2-step verification and need to use an application specific password for your phone). Good luck, if you figure out what happened, let us know here on this comment thread. Thanks.
I did not make any changes, also did not turn 2-step verification on. Only change was that my friend used his sim on my android for some time. later when i re-inserted my sim , since then my gmail isnt working. i also tried and changed my password…still no joy.
i have also started getting an error ” The application Settings( process com.android.settings) has stopped unexpectedly. please try again” when i uninstall any app from applications > manage applications.I am not sure if this is related to gmail.
@AndroDee I’d focus on what may have happened with the change-out of the sim card. Can you try re-installing Gmail on the phone? Or try connecting to your gmail account again from within Gmail on your phone? Your prior comment sounds like you can’t access Gmail on the phone any more. I’d look into the App Settings for the Gmail app on the phone (Menu>Settings>Applications) and see if there is any poking there that helps. Did you scan through the link I suggested above? That is a link specific to Gmail on Android and has lots of info that may help. That’s all I can think of for now.
it does not allow me to uninstall gmail from phone ( its grayed out). i tried removing my account but it says i will have to reset it to factory defaults
i checked the link – 2 way auth does not apply…i also checked sync issues..tried steps but again same issue.
i get red exclaimation mark on gmail sync.
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