Google Inc.’s Gmail for Android has received a long-desired upgrade with the app now offering a unified inbox, along with a range of additional features.

According to the Official Gmail blog, the new unified inbox will allow users to view all their mail at once, regardless of which account it’s from, using the new “All Inboxes” option in the updated Gmail for Android app. The end result is that users will be able to read and respond to all their messages without having to hop between accounts.

Along with a unified inbox, the new version of the app will additionally offers a conversation view for external email accounts, including messages from Yahoo, Outlook.com and other IMAP/POP accounts, complete with Gmail style stacking.

Search in Gmail for Android has also received a boost with the addition of autocomplete for the first time, bringing the functionality of the app closer to Google’s core search functionality.

In what Google describes as “other cool things” the update also includes more responsive animations, larger attachment previews to help users see what’s inside, and the ability to save to Google Drive with a single tap.

One email app to rule them all

The addition of support for a unified inbox goes a long way towards Google making Gmail the one email app that rules them all, and comes following news March 24th that Google was working on a service that allowed you to pay your bills from within Gmail as well.

While a lot of the buzz around email recently has been on Google’s Inbox app as being the “future of email” it’s good to see the tech giant is not ignoring the vast majority of its users who rely on the stock standard Gmail app for everyday use; Inbox may be the future of email, but even humble writers at SiliconANGLE are yet to receive an invite.

The new version of Gmail for Android is immediately available from the Google Play store. Non Android users, for a change, will simply have to wait.