Gmail for iOS doesn’t suck anymore

The days of waiting around to see your latest Gmail messages on iOS are over. Google has just released an update for Gmail that supports iOS 7’s background app refresh. In the company’s own words, this means there will be “no more annoying pauses while you wait for your inbox to refresh.” Gmail will now retrieve your email even when the app is closed to make sure everything is ready and up to date the next time you open it.

To take advantage of the new feature, you’ll need to have background refresh turned on in your iOS system settings, and Gmail notifications must also be turned on. But once you’ve checked off those two steps, you’ll never be waiting for your messages to refresh ever again. Gmail for iOS might not be on par with the Android experience just yet, but today’s update eliminates a major annoyance.

The latest Gmail update for iOS also adds support for single sign-in across Google’s various apps. By signing into your Gmail account, you’ll be able to quickly log in after downloading Google Maps, Google Drive, YouTube, and Chrome.

Update: Just to clear up any confusion, manual refresh wasn’t necessary in the prior version of Gmail, but there was a delay before new messages would appear. The article has been updated to reflect this.