Technofriends

Gmail Labs is definitely an interesting way of making Gmail implement all those cool features which most of the mailing services don’t have yet. The latest in the Gmail labs family is the Offline Gmail feature, earlier, Zoho announced its mailing service with Offline capability using Google Gears. Finally, Gmail too has added the same feature.

This feature is currently being rolled out to all those users who use Gmail in US or UK English. So if you don’t see it under the Labs tab, you might need to wait for a couple of days more.

Once you see the feature in your labs section, here are the steps to enable the same.

1.) Login to your Gmail account. Click on Settings –> Labs.

2.) Look out for the labs item “Offline Gmail”. Select the radio which says “Enable”. Click on Save Changes.

3.) Once your browser re-loads, you should see  “Offline^0.1” link on the right hand side next to your username.

Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don’t already have it.

How Does the Offline Gmail Feature Work?

Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection. And if you’re on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you’re “borrowing” your neighbor’s wireless), you can choose to use “flaky connection mode,” which is somewhere in between: it uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background. Goal is to provide nearly the same browser-based Gmail experience whether you’re using the data cached on your computer or talking directly to the server.

Also have a look at the below embedded Video which details this feature.

Via

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