Android 2.1 - GMail - Can you "Reply As" from Multiple Accounts?

[phorts]

Ok, so, i've seen the video for the Nexus One handling multiple GMail accounts, that's fantastic, but what it does NOT show me, and what is KILLING ME about my Eris, is that there is no "Reply As" drop down menu like there is in the regular GMail app for Desktop OS.

Ex. I have 3 email accounts (Hotmail, Work and GMail) that I have setup on my Eris. Currently, the only one getting pushed to my phone is GMail, which means that the other two are constantly polling for messages and causing a drain of battery, not to mention the hassle of having to enter into different mailboxes, apps to retreive mail.

I would LOVE to be able to have my GMail pop those other accounts and label them accordingly so that I can receive ALL my mail via Push from GMail, saving on battery and making email management on my phone MUCH easier.

However, this is NOT a possibility for me simply because I NEED to be able to Reply As the account that the msg was originally sent.

Ex. Someone sends an email to my work email, and i'm on the road. I need to repy as me@work.com, not me@gmail.com. That would be really confusing to the sender, not to mention unprofessional for me.

I've read some work arounds where some people have GMail setup the way i described above, but ALSO have their sep mail accounts setup on their phone w/ the Auto Polling set to manual. That way, they can manage their email in GMail, but if they need to reply to one from a specific account, they open up the Mail for that account, manually refresh and find the msg and reply. Um... No.

Also, the built-in Mail apps have no ability to do batch operations such as "Mark as read" or "Delete all" functionaility, GMail does. So, i can't be pumpin through 30 emails a day w/o this feature... i'm doing it now on my Eris and trust me, it's more work that it's worth. I'm not one of those people that can just leave the Mail Icon sitting there with a number on it..it has to go away..otherwise, i dont know if/when another email comes in...it could be important.

This is especially important to me because i'm an IT Professional, and, not only do i need to get my email in a timely manner (Push is instant and therefore ideal), but i need to be able to reply as such.

I've been looking at alternatives, but this seems to be the only/best way, and i'm REALLY hoping that it's built-in to Gmail on Android 2.1, like it is on the Desktop OS version...

So, can someone tell me please, is it?

If not, Google, if you're listening.... your Andoird GMail app does just about EVERYTHING that your Desktop OS version does, except this... so...come on man... gimme...it's important

Oh, and yes, i could have been more concise in my question, but i would have gotten the "Why do you want to do this" and "you could do it this way" responses..so i figured i'd get those out of the way... But, if there's a way i havent mentioned or an app i dont know about, please fill me in.. i'm all ears.

Thanks!

 

[miqal]

Setup all the account in Gmail and then under settings> accounts make sure you have the "Reply from the same address the message was sent to" option checked off. So when someone sends a message to me@work.com it will show as me@work.com as the sender, not gmail.

 

[phorts]

So it IS possible!? Oh JOY!

I have a Droid Eris right now and, running 1.5 this is NOT possible (at least i dont think it is?).

I'm waiting for the N1 to come out for Verizon....

thank you so much for your reply, that helps tremendously!

Happy days

 

[miqal]

It should be possible with the Eris. It's a Gmail setting. Log in to your Gmail from the computer and go to Settings > Accounts. I know it worked with my myTouch on 1.6 and works with my Nexus One.

 

[phorts]

It should be possible with the Eris. It's a Gmail setting. Log in to your Gmail from the computer and go to Settings > Accounts. I know it worked with my myTouch on 1.6 and works with my Nexus One.

I just checked GMail on my Droid Eris. THey don't even have the option "Accounts" here. GMail on Android 1.5 doesnt have the ability to support multiple accounts within GMail.

I guess that's that...

Thanks for checkin that out though..i can wait for Nexus, now that i know what it's gunna do what i need it to..

it's a beautiful thing..and it's gunna be a long wait .heh.

 

[miqal]

Reread my post:

I said: "It should be possible with the Eris. It's a Gmail setting. Log in to your Gmail from the computer and go to Settings > Accounts. I know it worked with my myTouch on 1.6 and works with my Nexus One."

This setup must be configured from gmail.com on a PC or Mac in your web browser (Firefox/IE, etc).

 

[phorts]

Reread my post:

I said: "It should be possible with the Eris. It's a Gmail setting. Log in to your Gmail from the computer and go to Settings > Accounts. I know it worked with my myTouch on 1.6 and works with my Nexus One."

This setup must be configured from gmail.com on a PC or Mac in your web browser (Firefox/IE, etc).

Well holy crapoli! It works! Sorry for just assuming it was a phone setting and not reading carefully...

I setup my GMail Account to POP my Hotmail acct (making sure to select the option to "reply from the same message the email was sent to".

The 2nd part of the setup is how to send your outgoing messages, via Hotmail or GMail servers. Since i want the message to show up as from me@hotmail, i selected from hotmail servers, although i'm not sure this is necessary..

It also asks you how to label email coming into hotmail.com and i said to label as "personal". You can set up custom labels to handle this, or not label at all.


I sent an email from me@work.com to me@hotmail.com and it was pushed to my phone pretty quickly (within 15 seconds).

I then replied to the msg and it came through to my work acct as from me@hotmail.com booyaa!

However, when i went to check my hotmail acct all the msg's in my inbox were gonzo. So i went into GMail settings and found that the "Leave copy of msg on server" was not selected...

I tried to select it and it told me that "hotmail does not support leave a copy on the server"..

bummer..i have folders setup in outlook to manage stuff...but it's not a huge thing as all my "important" stuff is in there, along with my contacts, calendar, tasks, etc are all associated w/ that acct.

I gotta think this one out, but i'm pretty sure i can make this work. Now i'm gunna have to get used to this GMail way of doing stuff..

one thing i can see that's gunna be an issue is you gotta scroll to the bottom of the msg to reply... :|

Thanks for your help!

 

[phorts]

Check that, i went back in to try again to select "leave copy of msg on server" for my hotmail...

and it took..and it works.

good deal!

 

[miqal]

Glad you got it all worked out. Have fun!

 

[NewYorkLaw]

Thanks for this thread. I, too, assumed this did not work but never bothered asking for help. Mine was already set to reply from the same address, and it has always worked from my desktop, but I just assumed on the mobile, it would not - and I avoided responding from the phone to certain emails.
Pete

 

[ddarvish]

all this sounds awesome except for one thing. if anyone has figured out a workaround btw id love you forever. What if i dont want to reply but i want to send a NEW messages from one of the 3 accounts that i have consildated into my gmail.. is there anyway to pick the send from address?

 

[Shadowtech]

I haven't messed with this, but was just curious about something. Does Gmail actually send through the other account's POP servers or from google's servers?

Reason I ask is you can set your reply to as anything you want on any email program, but if someone views full headers they can still see the real account it came from. While it's not a big deal for me, it can be for some who wish to keep their personal email address completely hidden. I would imagine it doesn't as this would allow people to send more "believable" scam/phishing emails. But if it actually sends through the other accounts POP3, it wouldn't be an issue.

 

[miqal]

I haven't messed with this, but was just curious about something. Does Gmail actually send through the other account's POP servers or from google's servers?

Reason I ask is you can set your reply to as anything you want on any email program, but if someone views full headers they can still see the real account it came from. While it's not a big deal for me, it can be for some who wish to keep their personal email address completely hidden. I would imagine it doesn't as this would allow people to send more "believable" scam/phishing emails. But if it actually sends through the other accounts POP3, it wouldn't be an issue.

This is something you don't have to worry about. The average email user does not even know what an email header is. But if you are concerned with it, Gmail will give you an option to send through your email accounts servers or Googles own SMTP server as phorts pointed out in his post above.

 

[phorts]

all this sounds awesome except for one thing. if anyone has figured out a workaround btw id love you forever. What if i dont want to reply but i want to send a NEW messages from one of the 3 accounts that i have consildated into my gmail.. is there anyway to pick the send from address?

Dang DDarvish, rainin on the parade! Heh. I was so concerned about replying as, i didnt even consider composing new email FROM different accounts. Well, i have a Droid Eris and so i'm running Android 1.5. This is not a possibility on my phone.

I would imagine it would be in the "Compose" screen under the Menu option, but is not for me.

Darvish, what phone/OS do you have?

Does anyone who is running 2.0 or 2.1 have GMail setup with multiple accts and can check for us? It's nowhere in any manual or online thread i can find.


If it is NOT there, then one workaround i could potentially see is the workaround i mentioned in my 1st post. This is, to setup the non-gmail acct(s) in the stock Mail app and just open that when you want to compose a new mail from that address.

Again, set the acct to manual so that it doesnt poll for messages, and just open it on an as needed basis, until Gmail offers this capability from their Android version of GMail.

This is a more palatable workaround option for me then when it was first mentioned to me, because i dont have to open the mail app to REPLY to messages as well, which would be far less convenient. I'm far more likely to REPLY to an incoming message than to send a NEW message from my phone. Usually i need to respond to someone who's contacted me for info...

And yes, as i explained in my other post, you can set GMail up to send through it's servers or through your POPs. I did check the headers on a message that was replied to from my phone back to me@work.com and the headers do show me@hotmail.com, gmail is not mentioned in the headers. Just wanted to check.


So, this is an acceptable workaround for me for now, as GMail is a far better mail app (save the "reply" button being at the bottom of the msg thing) and i have realized a noticeable battery life increase by not having 2 POP accouts polling for messages every 5-10 minutes...

So again, if anyone using a phone w/ 2.0 or 2.1 and using Multiple POP Accts in GMail could respond, that would be great.

2.1 Does offer multiple "GMail" Accounts and i imagine you can reply as from those...i'm hoping you can do this as well w/ your POP mails..

 

[Szadzik]

The Gmail app in 2.0.1 allows to add multiple Gmail accounts.

 

[phorts]

The Gmail app in 2.0.1 allows to add multiple Gmail accounts.

Ok, i thought one of the big things about 2.1 was that it allowed for this.

If you have this on your phone, can you confirm/deny whether or not you can send new emails from a sep POP account from w/in the GMail app? (Not a 2nd GMail acct)

thanks

 

[Szadzik]

Ok, i thought one of the big things about 2.1 was that it allowed for this.

If you have this on your phone, can you confirm/deny whether or not you can send new emails from a sep POP account from w/in the GMail app? (Not a 2nd GMail acct)

thanks

I set my gmail a long time ago to send as another email and it does that, but e.g. outlook will see through this and say @home on behalf of @work. That is what my outlook at work does.

Another thing is that when you try to reply to that email it will reply to the gmail one and not the external one. At least it works this way if the secondary email is not gmail.

 

[phorts]

I set my gmail a long time ago to send as another email and it does that, but e.g. outlook will see through this and say @home on behalf of @work. That is what my outlook at work does.

Another thing is that when you try to reply to that email it will reply to the gmail one and not the external one. At least it works this way if the secondary email is not gmail.

I dont think i follow what you're saying. You say setup your GMail to send as another Email - How? I assume you're talking about your Android GMail and not GMail on the desktop OS.

 

[Szadzik]

I dont think i follow what you're saying. You say setup your GMail to send as another Email - How? I assume you're talking about your Android GMail and not GMail on the desktop OS.

Of curse I am not talking about my desltop. I am talking about the setting in gmail website allowing to reply using another email address from within gmail. Everyone mentioned the setting here.

 

[phorts]

Of curse I am not talking about my desltop. I am talking about the setting in gmail website allowing to reply using another email address from within gmail. Everyone mentioned the setting here.

Sentence 1: "I'm not talking about my Desktop"

Sentence 2: "I'm talking about the setting in GMail Website.."

That's the same thing..

We know you can set multiple "reply from" addresses in the desktop OS/Browser version of GMail, we're talking strictly about the Android version.

 

[ddarvish]

i have a droid and os 2.0.1 on it... yeah i have not figured out how to select the address it is being sent from within the same gmail account.

my workaround (similar to the one you proposed phorts) since i have android 2.0 is to create a separate gmail account for each account i want to use and then have it setup with the correct reply to address... it is annoying because i cant have all my emails consolidated in one inbox.

i was hoping the web version of gmail on the phone would allow me to select the account but can only do it when i load the full desktop version of the site on my phone which is just too damn clunky and not touch friendly.

hopefully gmail will integrate such an important function into their mobile client as well or at least allow for combined inbox view...

I was hoping to use k9 mail as my client as it supports PUSH for gmail and it is free but alas that client also has the exact same problem.

 

[phorts]

i have a droid and os 2.0.1 on it... yeah i have not figured out how to select the address it is being sent from within the same gmail account.

my workaround (similar to the one you proposed phorts) since i have android 2.0 is to create a separate gmail account for each account i want to use and then have it setup with the correct reply to address... it is annoying because i cant have all my emails consolidated in one inbox.

i was hoping the web version of gmail on the phone would allow me to select the account but can only do it when i load the full desktop version of the site on my phone which is just too damn clunky and not touch friendly.

hopefully gmail will integrate such an important function into their mobile client as well or at least allow for combined inbox view...

I was hoping to use k9 mail as my client as it supports PUSH for gmail and it is free but alas that client also has the exact same problem.

Interesting. So you can setup not only separate GMail accounts, but also separate POP accounts WITHIN the GMail client on the Droid, but yet, you cannot select which address to "Reply As" or "Compose New" from..is this correct?

So, to you i would say to use my workaround, which is to set it all up in gmail desktop. You still wont have the ability to send mail from a different account but at least everything will be in one inbox.

just a thought...

 

[sjboyd81]

Does this work on the Droid Incredible?

There are the only two options I see on my PC, and neither of them give me the availaibility to pick the "From" address in the Gmail app.

Reply from the same address the message was sent toAlways reply from default address (currently ******@gmail.com)

Reread my post:

I said: "It should be possible with the Eris. It's a Gmail setting. Log in to your Gmail from the computer and go to Settings > Accounts. I know it worked with my myTouch on 1.6 and works with my Nexus One."

This setup must be configured from gmail.com on a PC or Mac in your web browser (Firefox/IE, etc).

 

[johnbrain]

Check that, i went back in to try again to select "leave copy of msg on server" for my hotmail...

and it took..and it works.

good deal!

hey. Thanks for thread. So I can setup Gmail through the internet to get my Hotmail, but leave the messages on the server so they STAY WITH MY HOTMAIL account for when I am home on my PC?

Then if I use gmail on my phone, the email will get the reply via hotmail?

 

[0sync0]

outlook will see through this and say @home on behalf of @work.

I stopped using gmail because of this. It looks unprofessional and some people thought me emails were fake.