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A few days ago, RIM released a plugin for the BlackBerry that adds enhanced support for Gmail accounts, including conversation style viewing, stars, and labels.

I’ve taken the time to play with it, and in all honesty, I do not like it at all.  The way I use my Berry, its more of an inconvenience and space waster.  Others, however will find it useful.

The Good:

• Adds support for labels and stars
• Easy to use

The Bad:

• Still doesn’t download previous messages
• Installation was an inconvenience
• No support for the all-in-one Messages app
• Threaded conversations need some work

My score: 2/5

Hit the read link for the full review.

One of the big criticisms of the BlackBerry is it’s lack of full IMAP support.  While it will sync read and delete status, you cannot move messages to folders on the server, nor can you read messages received before you set up your email on your BlackBerry.

With the release of this plugin, it somewhat remedies the situation for Gmail users.  By adding support for labels and stars, it allows the user to file messages right from his Berry.

Installation was quite an annoying experience for me.  When I visited www.blackberry.com/gmail from my phone, I was greeted with a message saying that not all users will meet the requirements for this plugin.  It said that if I didn’t receive an email about the plugin, I was to follow a set of instructions.  Well I never got the email, and since I didn’t want to risk messing up my Berry, I followed the instructions, which had me delete and re-enter my Gmail account into my phone.  It was annoying because I had to set up my filters and signature all over again.  But I eventually got it installed.

Now I started messing around with the plugin.  Well I tried, anyway.  I couldn’t find any new features in the all-in-one Messages app (where it puts messages from all of your accounts (and optionally texts)), and I was confused for a while.  I eventually figured out that I had to open the Messages app for my Gmail account, which was the biggest inconvenience for me, since I preferred the all-in-one.

Well, after discovering that horrible truth, I was set to delete it.  That’s when I figured I’d at least review it first.  So I started looking at the features.

I held a little mock conversation with myself (with my Gmail account and my Blackberry account) to test out the conversation view.  Taking a look, I did see that in the inbox view, it would group messages with the same subject, just as it does in Gmail.

It will tell you how many elements there are to the conversation, and if there is a new message, it will bold and the envelope will turn yellow.  So far it looked good.  It doesn’t get this view in the all-in-one app.  It just looked like the regular inbox.  When you select the conversation, the following screen comes up.

This is the conversation view, which is actually just another inbox view showing the messages and a small clip of the text.  To me, it just looks like a big mess.  The thing about it is that it only shows the received messages and NOT the ones sent.  This is very un-Gmail like.

When you open a message, it looks the same as viewing any other email on the Berry.  However, when you pull up the menu, you notice some new entries have been added:

Five new entries have been added: Add Star, Archive, Report Spam, Labels, and More of Conversation.  I couldn’t figure out what more of conversation did, but when I selected, I noticed the data usage icon appear in the corner, so I figured it probably downloaded more parts of the conversation.

Anyway, The first thing I tried was adding a star.  It added the star and showed the icon in the inbox, as well as on the Gmail web app.

Labels also worked well.  When you select “Labels” from the menu, you will be shown all of your labels.  Check the ones that you want to apply to the message.  This was also reflected on the server.

Archiving and spam control also worked well.  When you want to view your archived/labeled messages, all you have to do is go into the inbox and select “Filter” from the menu.  You will be shown the labels dialog and can choose which messages you want to see.  It does not, however, give you the option to see messages received before email was set up on the BlackBerry, which really sucked.

The plugin isn’t very configurable.  You can access it’s control panel by opening the settings for the Messages app and selecting “Enhanced Gmail(TM) Plugin Options”.  The only option there is how many messages you want shown in the conversation view.  By default, it is set to 2.

The plugin adds some really nice features to the device.  Many users will be happy with this plugin.  Others, like me, will prefer to see all these new features added to the all-in-one Messages app.

So, to recap:

The Good:

• Adds support for labels and stars
• Easy to use

The Bad:

• Still doesn’t download previous messages
• Installation was an inconvenience
• No support for the all-in-one Messages app
• Threaded conversations need some work

My score: 2/5.  I gave it two stars for the labeling and starring, and took 3 off since it didn’t work in the all-in-one, it didn’t give the option to view previous messages, and the conversation view sucked.

You know, RIM wouldn’t even have to bother with plugins if they would just include freakin’ IMAP.

Sam Hobson (37 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Sam Hobson is an Afro-Latino computer nerd. He enjoys all kinds of technology and innovations, and is an intermediate programmer. Currently, he's a junior in High School, and when he's not doing something computer nerdy, you'll find him at the basketball courts or the poker tables.