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Google makes enhancements to Gmail app

Google has made improvements to its Gmail for mobile application that lets users read the emails they have written without a wireless connection.

Emails are sent the moment a connection is reestablished.

In April, Google first launched its Gmail for mobile application for both the iPhone and Adroid-powered devices, and soon after redesigned the Web application's underlying code, allowing Google to quickly develop and release user-requested features.

"With the Web-browser-based Gmail for mobile we launched in April for iPhone and Android-powered devices, you can compose mail even when you're offline," said Heaven Kim, product marketing manager at Google Mobile, in Google's mobile blog post.

"That means you can write an email when there's no wireless connection, like in a subway or an airplane," he said.

While the ability that Mr. Kim references has been live since April, the Outbox feature allows the user to read those emails stuck between being written and being sent.

Google is introducing a series titled The Interactive Webapp where it will continue to release new features, first being the Outbox.

The Outbox feature will appear as a new tab within the menu of the Gmail application whenever the user has queued messages waiting to be sent from the mobile phone.

The email messages inside Gmail's Outbox will be in read-only format.

However, users that want to check whether or not a message has been sent before sending a follow-up email now have the ability to do so with Outbox.

Additionally, business professionals who are eagerly awaiting a response from an associate, colleague or client can know whether or not they should be expecting a reply by checking in their Outbox.

The Gmail for mobile application is available in the Apple App store and depending on the version, ranges anywhere from free to $0.99.

For Android users, the application is available for download in the Android Market.

"Where can you find those 'sent but not actually sent' emails?" Mr. Kim said. "Before today, the answer was ?nowhere.' To solve this problem, we've introduced a new feature, Outbox."