Google Decouples Gmail from Android

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Google upgraded Gmail for Android yesterday. The update adds limited support for the new Gmail Priority Inbox feature and decouples the application from the operating system. The update is only available to smartphones and tablets running Android 2.2. This includes the Motorola Droid X, for which Verizon today began rolling out over-the-air Android 2.2 upgrades, reports eWEEK.

The updated version of Gmail for Android also modifies message actions by allowing them to float at the top of the screen even while the user reads through e-mails, says InformationWeek. Users now also will be able to tap "Show quoted text" to open a previous e-mail in a message thread. Jason Kincaid at TechCrunch says the decoupling of Gmail from Android will help he platform with its fragmentation issue. Google Maps, Voice Search and Google Search have also been decoupled from the core OS.