The Gmail team has updated its Web app for Chrome with settings controls for its HTML5 offline main storage. Users can now set it to store 7, 14 or 31 days of past email offline. Email work done offline – on an airplane, for example – is synced next time you connect.
Today’s update also stores attachments for offline use, enables Gmail keyboard shortcuts offline, improves performance and fixes bugs. The Gmail offline app is available in the Chrome Web Store, and existing users will be updated automatically.
Offline Gmail first became a standard feature in 2009, but it used Google’s in-house (but open-source) plug in technology called Google Gears.
In April 2010, Google shut down Gears, disabling offline storage for Google services as the company transitioned to HTML5, a more standard solution. That transition took until August 2011, when Google released the offline storage apps for Chrome.
Do you use any Google services offline?
