Gmail Android update brings pinch to zoom and swipe to delete

Gmail has just seen an update to its Android app bringing with it pinch to zoom and swipe to delete functionality.

The prior is something we’ve had for a while in iOS and even Windows Phone, so it’s about time the most progressive mobile operating system out there got some two-finger in-email action.

As for swipe to delete, this is a very intuitive way of keeping on top of your mail management.

The download is available through the Google Play Store for all devices running Android 4.0 or higher.

To access it, just jump into the Play Store, tap ‘settings’ and select ‘my apps’. This should present you with the option to update the Gmail application. Select it and expect a download of approximately 3 to 4MB. 

Neither of these fantastic gesture based updates are available by default though. In order to activate the first - pinch to zoom, you’ll have to go into your Gmail settings. Once you’re in there, check the box next to ‘auto-fit messages’. After doing so you can intuitively pinch into your email body and picture for easier reading and viewing.

By default, swiping your inboxed emails archives them. Unless you use Gmail’s archiving functionality and organise your emails in folders therefore, you might be better served changing swipe to always delete.

To activate swipe to delete, tap the ‘swiping conversation list’ option and select ‘always delete’. This means everytime you see an email that needs binning, you need do no more than elegantly glide it out of the way.

If you're lucky enough to be running the latest version of Jelly Bean, Android 4.2, don't fret if you can't see the update. All this wonderful Gmail functionality is hard baked into the new OS, so just tweak as outlined the settings and get pinching and swiping.