Gmail, Google Docs and iOS – A Search for the Perfect App

When I moved to Singapore, I spent lots of evenings and weekends at work.  Even if I hauled my laptop home, it seems I always left some key document at work, or needed something that could only be accessed at work.

Jump ahead five years and now most of my files are online and platform-independent. I’ve shifted from One Note to Evernote.  I’m using Dropbox instead of My Site in Sharepoint to store files.  Both of those play well with my Windows 7 tablet at work, my Mac at home, my iphone and my ipad.  As a result, I can do more of my work from the comfort of my home or on the road.

Increased use of Google Docs further facilitated this change.  It allowed me to work on docs, spreadsheets and presentations from home and work. However, finding an app that accessed those well on my iphone and ipad has been less fun.  When I started looking, I discovered that many apps allow you to view your docs.  Unfortunately, few let you edit them well. Google’s own app sent you to Safari to do any work.

Eventually I found iGoogDocs and access improved.  It is not flashy, but it is quick and reliable.  With few taps I was into my docs. One further click and I was editing them. I used it with both Docs and Sheets and while I wouldn’t want to do major revision work on either on a phone, the quick bits I needed to revise on the fly worked well.

With Safari for reading my mail, and iGoogDocs for viewing work docs, all was well until I switched from Outlook to Gmail at work.  I was part of the pilot group charged with figuring out and resolving the glitches of moving off the Exchange server. This made mail a bit trickier on the iPhone. I was already using Safari to read my personal Gmail. It wasn’t very feature-rich, but my personal mail didn’t require much.  However, my work mail needed a more powerful interface to improve my workflow.

I found a really nice phone app called iMailG. I was quickly hooked on it due to all its handy features and visual appeal. I could now star messages.  I could quickly jump to the top and bottom of message.  I was amazed at how much better my experience was using that rather than the iPhone’s Mail app or Safari. (Since that time Google has vastly improved it’s mobile version so most features are available via Safari if you don’t want a stand alone app.

Since these two apps served me well on the iPhone, I eagerly put them on my iPad when I finally purchased one. iGoogDocs worked, but only at the size of an iPhone screen.  After trying a few iPad apps, I decided to use IGoogDocs anyways because it was more stable and quicker.
I also installed iMailG only to find it was not compatible. The developers were working on an iPad version but it wasn’t available yet.  I briefly used a nice app designed to play well with multiple Gmail accounts. It worked well until it was updated. I contacted the developer and he made a fix but it didn’t stick. I was back to looking for an app for my work Gmail.

Fortunately I found Google Apps Browser by G-Whizz! As with iMailG on the phone, this app added value to my experience.  It has a well-designed interface that lets me work more efficiently. It has many nifty features and it is stable.  It works well for mail, docs, spreadsheets and calendar.  The other apps probably work well but I don’t use them at work. I am so pleased that I think I will purchase the iPhone version.  That way my work mail can be on that and my personal account can be on iMailG.

The story could end there, but it doesn’t.  iMailG is now available for the iPad. It is a delight to use.  It is tied in my affections with Google Apps Browser  for mail and doc access.  Since I don’t have an app on either device that handles multiple accounts, this is the best solution– and it is a good one.

How are you accessing your Google accounts on your i-devices?