Google Experience with Blackberry

Hi All,

I recently moved from an Android device to a BB Bold 9780 with Vodafone Australia. They were offering the phone free on a $49 contract with $20 credit each month, effectively making it a $29/m for the value you get on a $49/m plan which is $550 worth of calls and unlim. BIS data/1.5G. For those in Australia interested, I believe the promotion ends on the 30th of September so still time!

Having come from Android, I've become a heavy user of Google Apps such as Gmail and Google Calendar and (obviously) these features integrated very well with the phone.

I'd always wanted a Blackberry because of it's messaging/PIM features. Unfortunately, I was basing that information on a few years back. Other OS's have made significant improvements in those respects which make it on par to Blackberry's services. But that's a discussion for another thread...

I'd asked around on an Aussie telecommunications forum (Whirlpool) about how the Google experience was on the Blackberry as well as other things that I mainly use my phone for (calls, texts, facebook) and I got a response that was fairly positive.

However, I've come to find that there are a few features missing that I find essential. It's understandable given that Google is a 3rd party to Blackberry however I was wondering if people had a work around for the following issues:

1. When syncing my account with my Google account it gave me the option to sync Calendar and Contacts which I was happy with. However, I noticed my inbox was empty bar the two emails alerting me that I'd added a new email account to my phone and that messages should start appearing in 20 minutes. So I thought no worries, on my Android sync was instant but I can understand BIS might need some time to download all my emails. I gave it a good 3 hours and still nothing. I searched around and apparantly due to the RAM limitations of the phone, this was done intentionally. However, I really need access to previous emails as I have outstanding communications going on. I downloaded the Gmail App from m.google.com and that worked great. Yet, the Gmail app doesn't do push e-mail and doesn't notify me when I receive new emails so I'm stuck having both my account in the native app so that I can see when I get emails and the Gmail app so I can access old ones. Is there anyway to retrieve all my emails in the native client, even if it involves jailbreaking/rooting/whatever blackberry users call getting admin access to the phone? The push to my BB is instant which is great but like what I've read around the forums when you read it on your desktop it doesn't update it as read on the phone instantaneously or even within a few seconds either which is a minor, but still, a nuisance

On this topic as well, I don't think my 9780 has the enhanced gmail plugin which I think solves this issue as well as allows me to use labels and other gmail features. I tried installing it via redirecting my BB's browser to the blackberry site but it said that my device was incompatible? I'm surprised at that given its only just become the 2nd Gen Bold. Maybe its carrier specific? This was the US BB site and I couldn't find it on the Australian BB site.

2. I use Google Calendar as my main PIM software and the BB had no problems syncing it with my device. However, it will only sync the events on my main calendar. I've created multiple calendars (all under the one email/Google Account) such as Due Dates which has all the due dates for all my assignments for Uni so that I can turn it on and off when the calendar gets too cluttered and I only want to see personal events. Is there anyway to get the native calendar to show all these calendars? I also added my facebook birthdays and events iCal to my google calendar but the BB FB app actually does it as well so that's good. I'll turn this feature off if, hopefully, I'm able to display all my additional calendars

3. The facebook app is pretty good bar not having Groups. I use groups a lot for university assignments and my sports team. I found a workaround by going to the mobile site but I guess this is a feature only the developers can work on so don't expect anyone to have a solution for this but just thought I'd mention it if people wanted to know how to view groups.

I think I unfortunately got on the BB bandwagon at a bad time when the OS is lagging behind others that have caught up and better implemented these features for the CONSUMER. I'm of course unaware of how a BB performs in a corporate environment which I'm sure it fairs much better, but then again, now that Google offer Google Apps for business I can see Small/Medium Enterprises switching to it for its cheap price and compatibility with more accessible/cheaper phones. My Uni have recently switched to Google Apps and I was able to add it as a Google account rather than just a standard email on my Android, but on the BB I have to add it as an 'other' account meaning I can't sync it's calendar to the native BB calendar. To workround, I share my calendars from my uni account with my personal account but again, because its not the main calendar its not showing on the BB.

I appreciate you all in reading this and if anyone has any workarounds to these problems it would be much appreciated. Or if I could just get a definitive answer that they just don't work/can't be done. I've tried my best to google these problems but all the posts are at least a few years old or have people saying yes can be done/no it can't

At least if the phones missing these essential features (for me), I guess a blackberry on a $29 plan isn't bad at all. Too bad its 24 months haha

The 9780 has the Gmail plugin. Worked pretty well for me, it supports labels and stars. BIS should download the emails. Maybe remove the account and try again?

You can set how long you want to hold messages on the device, 30 days by default. Not sure if that applies to how many messages BIS will download initially. You can perform remote search from the Gmail inbox for any message in the past.

You can select on the Gmail Calendar web page which calendars will show in mobile. On the device all calendars are consolidated for the Gmail account. One calendar per account on the Blackberry. Yes, it's a bit annoying.

Birthdays in contacts show on the calendar automatically, and what you need with due dates can be done with Tasks, and selecting to display tasks in the calendar.

I don't know if you can have all the features of all social platforms on the device. But personally, I just do all my PIM on the device itself because it's very efficient. I open Gmail in a browser only when I need to handle attachments.

Thanks for the help mate!

I checked the apps mgmt settings but the gmail plugin wasn't there. however, when I checked the menu on the main page of the gmail account and went to settings there were settings for the gmail plugin but only to change the number of lines of grouped messages. I don't have labels or stars like they do in the screenshots on the BB site. It would be odd if that was a carrier dependant feature. Are updates to the OS carrier dependant as well? I'm running 6.0 bundle 905 (6.0.0.294) but i've seen versions up to 0.0.5xx on the forums and I've tried updating but it says that the softwares up to date.

Thanks for the tip about the remote search! thats real handy. If I can't have all my mail there at least I can still refer back to it when its needed. I will try deleting/adding my gmail account again. Hopefully it doesn't double up on my contacts or anything!

Shame about the calendar :( that is a real inconvenience. I may have to merge all the calendars then.

That's a nice feature of the contacts app however that means I'd have to manually input everyones bdays whereas they're already given on facebook and its v easy to just sync up the facebook calendar.

So with how your using the BB PIM calendar, you don't have your events linked to an account? So all the events are stored locally on the phone? I can see where you're coming for however i like the notion of google calendar as it allows me to make updates on the desktop which just sync with my phone and vice versa

Originally Posted by tomo88

Thanks for the help mate!

I checked the apps mgmt settings but the gmail plugin wasn't there. however, when I checked the menu on the main page of the gmail account and went to settings there were settings for the gmail plugin but only to change the number of lines of grouped messages. I don't have labels or stars like they do in the screenshots on the BB site. It would be odd if that was a carrier dependant feature. Are updates to the OS carrier dependant as well? I'm running 6.0 bundle 905 (6.0.0.294) but i've seen versions up to 0.0.5xx on the forums and I've tried updating but it says that the softwares up to date.

Which mail icon are you opening? There is the unified inbox, which looks like a plain envelope. It consolidates all messages, and doesn't display any specific Gmail features.

You can access Gmail features only in the Gmail inbox. Look for another envelope with a globe on it, that's an individual email account, as opposed to the unified inbox.

Thanks for the tip about the remote search! thats real handy. If I can't have all my mail there at least I can still refer back to it when its needed. I will try deleting/adding my gmail account again. Hopefully it doesn't double up on my contacts or anything!

Speaking of, don't sync using the Gmail plugin and the Gmail app at the same time, you'll get duplicates. I recommend sticking with the plugin only, it works.

Shame about the calendar :( that is a real inconvenience. I may have to merge all the calendars then.

That's a nice feature of the contacts app however that means I'd have to manually input everyones bdays whereas they're already given on facebook and its v easy to just sync up the facebook calendar.

It's not manual, at least with Gmail. The contacts in Gmail have a birthday field, the birthdays calendar simply collects all birthdays from your contacts' birthday field. And the same is essentially done on the device, it's just not another calendar view. It shows as a birthday cake icon on that day.

So with how your using the BB PIM calendar, you don't have your events linked to an account? So all the events are stored locally on the phone? I can see where you're coming for however i like the notion of google calendar as it allows me to make updates on the desktop which just sync with my phone and vice versa

No, my calendar and address book sync with Google calendar and contacts just fine. I just accept that I don't have separate views in the calendar. I like using my device better, because I'm faster with all the shortcuts and do stuff on the go. So I gradually stopped caring about syncing, it's mostly there as a backup for me. But, I realize it's not how others work.

I still think Blackberrys are great for PIM, but a part of the reputation comes from their business capabilities on a BES account. For me, the efficiency and speed of working with the device are very compelling.

Ah I see where you're getting at with the Calendar. Yea, I might try that task functions for the due dates and I guess just put everything under the one main calendar.

Oh yea I didn't bother with the Google Sync app as everything I googled about it was from 2007 so I figured it was old news now.

hahah, yea I see the labels and stars now... blackberry noob clearly...

In regards to the birthdays, yea it pulls it from my Google contacts but those dates have to be entered in some how :P What I mean is that Facebook people have already entered in their own birthday so it just pulls that data, one less step I guess.

Yea, every good thing I heard about a BB was most likely in relation to its enterprise/business capabilites. I think nowadays with Android and how well it integrates with Google Apps, it is much more suited for general consumer needs. I absolutely love the form factor and look of the blackberry now. if there was an android phone that looked as professional as the BB i'd be right on it!

I really appreciate your quick response to my issues mate, real supportive community here