IT and Society: Gmail, Calendar and Docs now without Internet connection

Google has announced the launch of Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs offline apps. Offline access to Gmail is already available, while for Calendar and Docs such an option will be rolled out over the week.

Gmail Offline is a Chrome Web Store app that is intended for situations when user needs to read, respond to, and archive email without an Internet connection.

This HTML5-powered app is based on the Gmail web app for tablets, which was built to function with or without web access.

After you install the Gmail Offline app from the Chrome Web Store you can continue using Gmail even in case you lose your connection by clicking the Gmail Offline icon on Chrome’s “new tab” page.

Google Calendar and Google Docs let users seamlessly move between on- and offline modes. When you are offline in Google Calendar, you can view events from your calendars and respond to appointments. With Google Docs you can view documents and spreadsheets when you don’t have a connection. Offline editing isn’t ready yet however the developers have promised to launch this option in the future.

To get started using Google Calendar or Google Docs offline you need to click the gear icon at the top right corner of the web app and select the option for offline access. Google says that IT administrators can deploy Chrome Web Store apps to users en masse by setting up organizational policies for Chrome.

The announcement of the Internet giant also reads that in the future the company intends to provide offline access to its apps for other browsers. What is more, within the next months it is going to add offline document editing and customize the amount of emails to be synchronized.