--- description: Products from rival companies Apple and Google don't often play nicely together, but Google introduced an update to its Gmail app for iPhone Wednesday that vastly improves the user experience, pre-fetching and syncing emails for easier reading on the go title: Gmail iPhone App Gets Email Faster with Background App Refresh image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Gmail iPhone App Gets Less Sucky, Shows New Mail Faster by [Doug Aamoth](/author/doug-aamoth/) ## Doug Aamoth Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 5, 2014 5:05 PM CUT by [Doug Aamoth](/author/doug-aamoth/) ## Doug Aamoth Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 5, 2014 5:05 PM CUT Not that it was super sucky before. The one glaringly sucky thing about it has been de-suckified, however. [From Google’s blog](http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/get-your-mail-faster-on-gmail-ios-app.html "undefined"): --- > “” --- Note that this can take a toll on your battery life, depending upon how many emails you get every second. [Check out this video](http://techland.time.com/2014/01/24/30-second-tech-trick-how-to-extend-your-iphone-battery/ "undefined") to see how to turn off background app refresh on the iPhone to save battery life. Note: I have background app refresh turned off for just about every app, but I’ll be turning it on for this new Gmail feature. Mark my words. That’s not a threat: It’s a promise. [Get your mail faster on the Gmail iOS app](http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/get-your-mail-faster-on-gmail-ios-app.html "undefined") \[Google Blog\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/12869/gmail-iphone-app-gets-less-sucky-shows-new-mail-faster/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/12869/gmail-iphone-app-gets-less-sucky-shows-new-mail-faster/"},"headline":"Gmail iPhone App Gets Less Sucky, Shows New Mail Faster","datePublished":"2014-03-05T17:05:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:39.261Z","description":"Products from rival companies Apple and Google don't often play nicely together, but Google introduced an update to its Gmail app for iPhone Wednesday that vastly improves the user experience, pre-fetching and syncing emails for easier reading on the go","url":"https://time.com/12869/gmail-iphone-app-gets-less-sucky-shows-new-mail-faster/","keywords":["Tech","Google","gmail","Apps & Software"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Doug Aamoth","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/doug-aamoth/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/12869/gmail-iphone-app-gets-less-sucky-shows-new-mail-faster/","name":"Gmail iPhone App Gets Less Sucky, Shows New Mail Faster"}}]}] ```