How to set-up push Gmail for the iPhone

Google launched the Google Sync push synchronisation for its Calendar and Contacts services in February this year, but Gmail support was conspicuously absent.

This didn’t prevent you from setting up a Gmail account in the iPhone’s Mail app, but it did mean that you couldn’t make use of the push email feature added in iPhone OS 2.0. As of today, however, you can — Google just turned on push email for Gmail.

Once configured, this means that messages sent to your Gmail account will be automatically ‘pushed’ to your iPhone or Windows Mobile smartphone. So, you don’t need to ‘check’ your email account to see if you have any new messages — you’ll get them as soon as they hit the Gmail server.

Battery life will take a hit with push email enabled and you’ll be forever at the beck and call of your iPhone, but if your curiosity is overwhelming your common sense, find out how to set it up after the cut.

If you haven’t done so already, start by setting up your iPhone to use Gmail. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars and select Add Account…

Select the Microsoft Exchange option and type a name for the account in the Email box — this doesn’t have to be your email address.

Type your Gmail / Googlemail address in the Username box and password in the Password box. Leave the Domain box empty. Then tap Next. Type m.google.com in the Server box that has now appeared and your iPhone will attempt to verify this address — you’ll need an internet connection for this.

Tap Next, then Save. The next screen is where you choose what you want to sync. You’ll obviously need Mail set to On here, but be careful enabling Contacts and Calendar — the data in your Google account will overwrite that on your iPhone if you enable these. Tap Done to finish this part of the set-up.

You’ll now be back at the Mail, Contacts and Calendar screen — tap the Fetch New Data button and turn on the Push option.

Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap Advanced. If Push doesn’t appear next to your Gmail account on this screen, tap the Gmail entry and enable the option.

Test the service by opening the iPhone Mail app and selecting the Gmail account you just created. Open the Inbox and wait a few minutes while the app downloads its contents — you might want to wait until you’re on a Wi-Fi connection to do this. Now go to the iPhone Home screen.

To test push delivery, you’ll need to send an email to yourself using something other than the iPhone. Once sent, keep an eye on the Mail app icon — it should soon show that you have a new message waiting without you having to manually check for new mail. That’s push!

[ Google Mobile Blog]