Easily access your Gmail account on your phone
What you need:
- A cell phone that uses AT&T/Cingular, Sprint Nextel, or T-Mobile
- A data plan that lets you access the wireless Web
- A Gmail account
Time to complete:
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How to Get Gmail on Your Cell Phone
Take Gmail with you
Apr. 16, 2007
Joni Blecher Follow me on Twitter
E-mail is quickly becoming a popular feature on cell phones. Even the carriers include easy ways to access many Web-based e-mail services, such as AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN Hotmail. That’s great if you have an e-mail account with any of those services, but what if you’re a dedicated Gmail user? It's no problem as long as you have a cell phone that supports J2ME applications (this is the mobile platform that runs Gmail mobile mail). If you have a cell phone that uses AT&T/Cingular, Sprint Nextel, or T-Mobile service and a data plan (this is not the same as a text messaging plan), you should be able to check and send e-mail from your Gmail account in minutes.
The best part about the Gmail application is that it’s free to download and use. What'll cost you is the data plan, though we should note you don’t need an all-you-can-eat data plan. Checking and sending e-mail doesn’t claim huge amounts of data unless you're sending big files such as images and other attachments.
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1. Accessing Gmail using a Sprint Nextel phone
If you have a Sprint Nextel phone, getting Gmail on your cell phone will be a little easier for you. Simply select Messaging from the Main menu, then choose IM & Email, and then Other Messaging. This should get you connected to the wireless Web, and on the phone's display, you’ll see a screen with a list of options; select E-mail. Next, you’ll see the screen featured here. Highlight Gmail and press the button corresponding to Go. (You’re a bit ahead of the game now, so skip to Step 3 to get the Gmail mobile application installed on your phone.)
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2. Go straight to the source
If you don’t have a Sprint Nextel phone, you’ll have to manually enter the Gmail mobile URL in your cell phone’s Web browser. To access your Web browser from the Main menu, you’ll probably go through the phone's Web option. If you don’t see something called Web in the menu, there will probably be an icon that implies Web access, such as a globe. Select that option and you should find a place to enter your own URL. Usually, it says Web Address or Go To, where you can then enter your own URL. At this point, you need to type in gmail.com/app and hit Enter. (Don’t worry, you probably won’t need to type in the "http://" part of the address; the Web browsers on most cell phones have this preprogrammed.)
Note: If you don't currently have a data plan with your cell phone you will not be able to access the wireless Web.
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3. Download the mobile Gmail application
The next screen you should see will give you the option to get or download the application. Select that option by highlighting it, then clicking on it. The phone does the rest. You’ll see a screen that says Downloading, so you can see how long it takes to transfer the application onto your phone. This step should take just under a minute -- and probably less on newer phones.
Note: If you're not using a Sprint Nextel phone, you'll just get a similar screen only there will not be any pricing information. Just a prompt to get Gmail mobile.
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4. Accessing Gmail
Once the download of the Gmail mobile application is complete, you’ll have a few options: Run or check out the settings. (Note: If you’re a Sprint Nextel user, you’ll also have the option to shop for other applications.) The application is typically placed in the Applications folder on most cell phones, so that’s where you’ll find it next time you want to use it. The nice thing about this is that it’s basically one-touch access to Gmail – just click it and go.
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5. Sign-in to Gmail
Whether you select Run or decide to access the application later from your cell phone, the first screen you’ll encounter is the sign-in screen. Just enter your username and password. The good news is you need to enter it only once. Next time you want to access your Gmail, you should automatically be signed in to your account.
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