Kiwi for Gmail Lite App Reviews

gives me a 404 on google. might be ok? not sure?

I want to like this. I like having a standalone app for gmail, but that in and of itself isn’t going to do it for me. The Kiwi Lite version offers basically nothing else. What’s worse is that it actually makes my gmail experience worse beucase I have a few Gmail plugins installed in Chrome that I rely on. I know the upgraded version provides some goodies, but until I can install any plugins that are available from the Chrome Store, Kiwi won’t work for me.

Spell Check is mandatory, not optional. Hope this comes soon, so my 5 rating can soon follow.

Seems to be mainly just wrapping the GMail web interface and embedding it in a thick client application. It can be argued that it has made some usability improvements relative to accessing GMail in a web browser, but functionally, it doesn’t seem to do anything that the web interface can’t do.

It’s perfect app-based Gmail functionality. Haven’t hit a single snag. 4 stars only because it only works with basic Gmail, not Inbox. If I had more need for the paid-only features, I’d have no qualms about paying for this app.

I’m still considering whether to upgrade to the full version, but the Lite version is just fine. It accomplishes a large part of the basic functionality I was looking for, which is to have a standalone Gmail client without firing up a distracting full browser. Even the full version is clearly not as full-featured as MailPilot, but who can afford that $25 one anyway? I’d rather get the core function for a lot less money. Things that I’m happy to see work: paste for images, all built-in Gmail keyboard shortcuts. Thing I’m not happy to see: Cmd-F doesn’t let you find text on a page, the way that a browser-based Gmail would. I still have no idea what “Keyboard shortcuts” means in the Pro version, and nobody from support has told me despite several attempts to reach them.

Try the Lite version first. It works well and is free. I was hoping for some groundbreaking email app. The interface looks like a browser version of gmail from the early 2000’s. I’ll stick with the stock mail app on my Mac.

Does a great job for my work GApps email. Considering upgrading to full app to be able to add my regular emails as well. A couple requests: 1. Calendar notifications! Would love to have these in addition to email (which I dont really use) 2. Integration with Hangouts as well

Part of this apps pitch is “freeing gmail from the browser” when in it appears that this “app” is nothing more than a dedicated browser for gmail. In fact after accessing gmail the first time I got a notification from google titled "New sign-in from Safari on Mac”. Dissapointing.

I want to like this app more, but I guess I was hoping I wouldn’t feel like I’m simply looking at Gmail in a browser window. I thought maybe it was going to be a similar, but improved, Gmail design. But instead it feels like Gmail is merely being displayed in an iframe. I want the Zen Button feature, badly, and may upgrade for that alone. But I’m getting bored with the Gmail design and my desire for a better design might deter me from upgrading.

I was skepticle at first… but thought it might be an interesting experiment. Turns out that this software is great and should be one of those “add-ons” to any productivity package that folks talk about. I love it!

I used Apple Mail for several years with Gmail, with mixed success. Most recently, I was having a lot of issues getting e-mails to move or delete properly. So, the hunt began for a different client. I tried demos of a lot of them, but all fell short in one way or another for me. I was initially a little hesitant to return to an experience that was so close to the browser Gmail experience; a lot of the reason I used a client in the first place was that I never quite fell in love with the Gmail browser interface. But, I really wanted to give Kiwi a try. I’m very glad I did. After a super-short re-learning curve of all the ins and outs of Gmail labels and workflow, I’m happier now than I’ve ever been with my email. I really recommend Kiwi for Gmail.

I’ve been using Fluid to embed the gmail page into a single browser window stand-alone application. Kiwi does the same thing but with less then half the memory footprint. I’m waiting for the screen flickering/tearing issues to be sorted out on retina displays before I upgrade to the paid version.

My mail apple mail app doesn’t sync my gmail for some odd reason, which is a real pain. Once I found this app, I use this instead of my mail app. This works perfectly. Sure it looks just like the browser email, but I don’t have to have my browser open, with the tab, etc. This just runs in the background like my mail app, with ease. I love it!

So far so good! I’ve been using Kiwi for a couple of weeks now. All the speed and power of Gmail in a browser is there — fantastic keyboard-based controls, for example. But the system now knows about my Gmail, so integration with other applications is tighter and simpler. I’d love to see Launchbar recognize it (maybe it can?) because I use LB to email files all day long. But that’s my only complaint and it’s minor. It has been rock solid stable and I’m a happy camper. Thank you for building a great app!

Does your Gmail and Google calendar get lost within lots of open browser windows and tabs? This app solves that problem, and does it well. You get the same powerful Gmail user experience, but with a proper dock icon/app that is always just one click away. No more sifting though tons of windows and tabs to find your Gmail. Very useful. The navigation between mail and calendar could be improved though better naming of the windows, but that is a minor point, and I’m sure that the Kiwi folks will remedy it at some point.

I read the intro with great antipation as a long-time, avid GMail user with multiple accounts and extensions up the wazoo. Only to find… that Kiwi for GMail is a millimetre-thin veneer around GMail in a Chrome tab. A 1 minute peek under the hood shows it uses Chromium Embedded Framework which confirms your first impression - that it’s just a GMail tab. It’s laughable that it’s presented with such fanfare.

I don’t have a big problem with the fact this is nothing but a thin web framework. I DO have a huge problem with the fact they have a pay version.

This app is great. It doesn’t do anything too fancy, it’s mainly a single-purpose webview of your Gmail, but it does away with all the extra “chrome” of a full browser, is fast, lean, and won’t eat up your Mac’s RAM & CPU like a full browser can. Since it’s a separate app, I can assign it to be the default mail client too, which is fantastic. I will be buying the paid upgrade so I can use multiple accounts. Try it now!

This is a well designed app, but is missing features that would make using the paid version practical. For example, when I try to open a Drive document, it opens in the browser, not Kiwi, making Kiwi pointless. Why can’t it open Calendar, Drive, etc. in tabs inside the same window, instead of spawing multiple windows? I would like to use this to log into several Gmail accounts at once, instead of having to have 3 instances of Chrome open all the time.