Google is very serious about innovation as well as ease of use on all platforms for their users, as we can see by the latest update for the Gmail android application. Now, Gmail on Android mobile devices looks more similar to how we see it on the desktop version. The main benefits include: independence from Android system updates, improved message replies, better access to quoted  text, and much more. This update (available for phones with Android 2.2 – Froyo) was announced on the official Google mobile blog.  Let’s hear about the new advantages straight from the horses mouth:

As you scroll through a conversation, your most important message actions will now stick to the top of the screen, one click away, no matter how long the email is.Don’t remember what prompted the most recent email in a thread? Now you can view previous message content more easily, just like in the desktop version of Gmail. Tap “Show quoted text” to reveal the previous message.Finally, this updated version of the Gmail app has limited support for Priority Inbox. If you’ve enabled Priority Inbox via the desktop version of Gmail, you’ll see an “Important” label that shows all messages flagged as important. You can even add a shortcut to “Important” to your home screen.

This is not the only update from Google headquarters this week. Just yesterday, we heard news about a security update to authenticate access via mobile.   Also, Google has added new features to support editing functionality on Androids and the iPad for Google Docs (which does not have a standalone application yet).

So it looks like Google has realized the potential of the mobile market, and is really putting some effort into making the mobile versions of their Apps more usable.  This ties in with some of the larger goals for Google, with Android, Chrome and desktop integration, demonstrating yet another way in which Google plans to leverage its many Apps and outlets to reach consumers.