Thursday, October 23, 2008 | 10:00 AM

As an engineer on the Gmail for mobile team, I use the Gmail client on my mobile phone all the time. Because of this, I'm always looking for ways to make it faster, more robust and easier to use. Today, we're thrilled to introduce Gmail for mobile version 2.0 for J2ME-supported and BlackBerry phones. Our focus for this version was to make the experience faster and more reliable. We rearchitected the entire client to push all the processing to the background, greatly improve the client-side caching scheme and optimize every bottleneck piece of code we came across.



So, what does this all mean for you?



Overall performance improvement : You should experience significant raw speed improvement, smoother scrolling, and no freezing.

: You should experience significant raw speed improvement, smoother scrolling, and no freezing. Multiple accounts management : If you have both a Gmail and Google Apps email account, you can easily switch between them quickly. You will no longer have to use two different mobile apps to access personal and work emails.

: If you have both a Gmail and Google Apps email account, you can easily switch between them quickly. You will no longer have to use two different mobile apps to access personal and work emails. Multiple mobile email drafts : You can save multiple email drafts in your mobile phone, so that you can pick and choose what you would like to send later.

: You can save multiple email drafts in your mobile phone, so that you can pick and choose what you would like to send later. Powerful shortcut keys : If you have a QWERTY phone, you can use shortcut keys. Hit 'z' to undo, 'k' to go to a newer conversation, and 'j' to go to an older conversation. See Menu/Help in the app for more shortcuts.

: If you have a QWERTY phone, you can use shortcut keys. Hit 'z' to undo, 'k' to go to a newer conversation, and 'j' to go to an older conversation. See Menu/Help in the app for more shortcuts. Basic offline support : Can't get a signal? Not a problem. You can compose and read your most recent emails even when there is no signal. Also, any outgoing messages will be saved in the outbox on your phone and sent automatically when you're back in coverage.

m.google.com/mail

Posted by Derek Phillips, Software Engineer, Google mobile team

Also, Gmail for mobile 2.0 is available in over 35 languages now. Please note, though, that not all features are available for all phones.Go toin your mobile browser to download the new Gmail for mobile for your phone.