Not bad — but has flaws

The developers say this is not just an app shell around a web client. Maybe that’s true in the nuts and bolts, but from the user perspective and usage, it is. And understanding this limitation helps understand why some of the annoying things happen with it.

For example, many of us have more than on Gmail account and use them in different Chrome windows, each Chrome window logged into a separate Google account. Like I have one for work, one for a company I help out, my personal one, and the one I don’t want my wife to know about. So on many of the Chrome apps, if you launch them, they can’t run inside this program (Calendar being a good exception) and hence will open in a new browser window. Problem is, it’s probably not the same Google account that you want it to open in. For example, I manage a Google Apps business account. If I choose “Manage this domain” then a new browser window opens with an error that says I must be logged into a Google Apps account.

If you understand these limitations and are OK with them, then this is an awesome app. But for me it ended up getting so annoying that I ended up going to another email app. :-(

weave about Kiwi for Gmail