The Gmail Mobile team today announced some changes designed to make Gmail Mobile easier to use as well as run faster and more smoothly on Android devices and iPhones' browsers.

The improvements will mean faster load times when opening emails, navigating, or searching as well as the ability to read messages and compose offline over a flaky or non-existent network connection, similar to Gmail Offline.

The introduction of a floaty toolbar that follows you as you scroll makes archiving and deleting a lot easier. Labels are clearer and more in-line with the familiar Gmail labels you see on your desktop and the search menu has been moved up into the top header, making it more accessible.

While this is all great news for email users, Google says we won’t actually experience the full impact of the new architecture (which uses HTML5 and Gears) right now. The Gmail team explained that, while it does enable them to significantly improve performance, it means they can quickly roll out new features in the near future. Leaving us hanging on what those new features actually are, the team goes on to gush about the enormous potential the changes carry with them.

All said and done, we’re still holding out on a full Gmail for iPhone app to make things even easier. Our fingers are crossed for one to launch alongside the iPhone OS 3.0 with push notification.

Source : Tom's Hardware US