The Iterative Web App: Links Got Shorter and Smarter
On April 7th, we announced a new version of Gmail for mobile for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Among the improvements was a complete redesign of the web application's underlying code which allows us to more rapidly develop …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the third installment of Google's 'Iterative Web App' series for Gmail on mobile. The April 7 relaunch rebuilt the web application's underlying code so the team could ship improvements continuously, and the cadence shows it: a June update added faster address auto-complete and keyboard shortcuts, and today's change shortens and smartens the links inside messages.
The approach is a deliberate alternative to the native-app route Google took when it launched Gmail for the iPhone in January 2008 — back when the mobile interface was still being incrementally patched. By treating the browser as the distribution channel, Google avoids per-platform release cycles across iPhone and Android at once.
First-order effects
- iPhone and Android users reading Gmail in the browser get shorter, smarter links immediately, with no install or upgrade step required.
Second-order effects
- Every quick web-app ship narrows the feature gap that native mail clients on both platforms were built to close, pressuring Apple's and handset makers' built-in mail apps on responsiveness grounds.
Third-order effects
- If the rapid-release pattern holds, mobile email consolidates around continuously updated web applications, weakening the case for platform-specific native clients and making the browser the primary delivery layer for Google's services.
The trend: Mobile applications are shifting from per-platform native releases toward rapidly iterated web apps that update everywhere at once.