Gmail Notifier Applets for Ubuntu
Given the popularity of Gmail, it’s not surprising that a score of desktop applets have emerged for notifying users of new messages. I recently set out on a quest to find the best one. Here are the results.
Until about a month ago, I clung defiantly to Evolution for managing email on my main computer. Gmail’s Web interface is great, but I really liked the responsiveness of a stand-alone email client. Unfortunately, Gmail and Evolution never got along very well–Evolution had a habit of hanging sometimes when connecting to the Gmail servers, and it lacks support for some Gmail features, like labels. So I gave up on Evolution a few weeks ago, when I switched to Gmail’s Web interface full-time.
This meant, however, that I no longer received notifications in the system tray when new mail had arrived, which Evolution provided by default. I missed this feature, since it allowed me to keep track of new messages no matter which workspace I was in. To fill this void in my post-Evolution life, I went in search of a standalone applet for Gmail notifications. Here are my findings.
CheckGmail
CheckGmail is a reliable and feature-rich notifier applet. Unlike the other applets in this list, it can watch the Gmail feed for new messages, rather than merely pinging the server at a specified time interval (although it can do that too if you want).
In addition to displaying a pop up notification when new mail arrives, CheckGmail will display a preview of the newest message when the mouse hovers over its applet in the system tray, which is another cool feature.
On the downside, CheckGmail doesn’t support the osd notification system, probably because it’s a generic *nix application rather than Ubuntu-specific.
cGmail
cGmail integrates with Ubuntu’s osd daemon to display notifications using the slick and graceful system introduced in Ubuntu 9.04, which is a definite plus. On the other hand, the notification message, “There is a new mail” (or “There are X new mails”), is a bit awkward, but it could probably be changed easily enough, since the application is written in Python.
Among cGmail’s features is the option to store passwords using the Gnome keyring, which will help put paranoid users at ease (most of the other notifiers store Gmail credentials in plain text files). It also offers the ability to run arbitrary commands upon detection of a new message, meaning the sky–or the Bourne-again shell, at least–is the limit when it comes to geeky things you can do when you receive email.
gm-notify
gm-notify, as its homepage explains, is a “simple and lightweight” Gmail notifier for Ubuntu 9.04. Like cGmail, it uses the osd daemon to display notifications.
gm-notify offers no features besides the ability to play a sound when a new message arrives. It has no system-tray icon–which may or may not be desirable, depending on individual preference–and its notifications display only the subject line of the newest message, not the sender’s email. But its footprint is indeed small, and it’s a great option for those interested in simple and sweet notifications.
Gmail Notifier
Gmail Notifier is another relatively simple applet modeled after the application released by Google, which doesn’t support Linux. It gets the job done, but its pop-ups are kind of ugly, not to mention barely readable with the system theme I’ve chosen (DarkRoom, one of the default alternative themes that ships with Ubuntu 9.04). It fits in better with the desktop of yesteryear than modern compiz-enabled Ubuntu.
Mail Notification
The mail-notification applet, installable from the Ubuntu repositories, is a generic mail notifier supporting all IMAP and POP email accounts, not just Gmail, and can be configured to monitor multiple accounts at once.
I had a lot of trouble getting this to work properly. I had to start the service manually–it wasn’t added to the Gnome panel automatically–and it crashed Gnome keyring the first time I configured an account. The tray icon, reminiscent of the default Fedora artwork circa FC 2, is not very attractive. Worst of all, the notifications appear as pop-up dialogue boxes, which are both intrusive and ugly.
I’d love to see the functionality and aesthetics of this applet improved, as it would be a great choice for checking all of my mailboxes from one place. But its implementation in Ubuntu 9.04 needs a lot of work.
Conclusion
After trying each of these different applets for a few days, I think I’ve settled on cGmail, although CheckGmail is a close second and would definitely be a winner if it integrated with osd. But that choice reflects personal preference more than anything else; all of these utilities perform the same basic function well.
Nice little article, complete with screenshots and urls. If only others would include those!
I hadn’t heard of cGmail so I had to go have a peek!
If anyone uses Gnome-Do docky – you’ll find that the GMail docklet does most of the above. it even has a little “jump list” which gives the titles/subject of unread mails as well as using NOTIFY-OSD to alert you to new ones… as well as displaying a colourful badge on the docklet itself!
It’ll be part of the next release proper of Gnome-Do but you can easily build it from source and try it.
Shameless link, but it cover it all!
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2009/08/gnome-do-gmail-docklet.html
Nice article.
What I have found to work quite nicely is using Thunderbird with Gmail IMAP amp; Google contacts Add-ons. Certainly much better than my experience with Evolution.
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d0od: thanks for mentioning the Gmail docklet for Gnome-Do. I tried it myself but left it out of the post because I decided to focus only on applets available without adding additional components to Gnome. But Gnome-Do is definitely cool and its Gmail docklet is worthy of testing for people who Gnome-Do installed. Some of the other docks, like AWN, also have Gmail applets.
vinnie: thanks for the tip on Thunderbird and Gmail. I think I’m sold on the Web interface for now, but will give Thunderbird a try if I ever change my mind. I tried Thunderbird and Gmail IMAP a couple years ago and had many of the same problems as on Evolution, but it sounds like they’ve been resolved by now.
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[…] Gmail Notifier Applets for Ubuntu Tuesday, October 6, 2009 By jfeedor Given the popularity of Gmail, it’s not surprising that a score of desktop applets have emerged for notifying users of new messages. I recently set out on a quest to find the best one. Here are the results. […]
Thanks for the artice!
Regarding mail-notification applet:
I agree about the troubles getting this to work in Jaunty, but that was the only notifier I found (please correct me if I’m wrong) that can support ssl and google imap in idle mode.
Regarding the pop-up window it’s a configuration option.
I got my help getting this to work from Whoopie in this thread
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=589115
[…] Gmail Notifier Applets for Ubuntu After trying each of these different applets for a few days, I think I’ve settled on cGmail, although CheckGmail is a close second and would definitely be a winner if it integrated with osd. But that choice reflects personal preference more than anything else; all of these utilities perform the same basic function well. […]
I use checkgmail, though cgmail is good, i’ve had connection issues with it recently. I’ve actually found Evolution to work perfectly with Gmail IMAP. I wish Evolution had decent Mac and Windows ports.
Mike: thanks for the link. As far as I know, Mail Notifier is the only applet on the list that supports SSL, which is an important feature to some people. Thanks for pointing it out.
CMD: does Evolution really work perfectly for you with Gmail? No hanging when trying to download messages or failure to connect to the server sometimes? I found it to be very slow compared to other IMAP accounts, but maybe it’s just the way I have Gmail configured. I do really like Evolution–I like it so much that I used it on Windows for a while, even though the port is extremely under-baked–and wish I could make it agree with Gmail.
CMD:
I had connection issues with CheckGmail as well. To fix it change the startup command to: checkgmail -no_cookies
CheckGmail I like, and I have a sound which says “You’ve got mail” 🙂 I know….but I like it.
cGmail I haven’t tried yet. Maybe it’s not available for Ubuntu 8.04.
I do agree. I’m a newbie to the ubuntu/linux world and tried all of them and could now get any of them to work and to work at startup, but cgmail did and it worked without any problems thanks for your time that you spent doing this.Keep doin what you do best (providing good info)Im running ubuntu 9.04
[…] Google ，发现不少 Gmail Notifier 程序呢，除了刚刚提到的那两个用过的，剩下只有 cGmail 这个程序还不错，cGmail […]
Just a comment. gm-notify is the only one that is integrated into the new “indicator-applet”
[…] Fonte: http://www.workswithu.com/2009/10/06/gmail-notifier-applets-for-ubuntu/ […]
[…] Google ，发现不少 Gmail Notifier 程序呢，除了刚刚提到的那两个用过的，剩下只有 cGmail 这个程序还不错，cGmail […]
Hi there – might it be time to do another iteration of this article in time for Lucid LTS?
I’m currently using CheckGmail (based on your advice amp; research above) but I would love to see a Gmail notifier with better integration with the Ubuntu indicator/notify framework?
Keep up the good work on your blog!
I used checkgmail in Ubuntu 8.04. Now I have installed Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook edition on my Dell Latitude 2100, and installed gm-notify of the launchpad ppa. It uses the indicator applet for email notification. Once running, on new mail envelope turns green and you can set it up to play a sound file. I like to change the check interval time but I don’t know how.
Yea, I think it’s time to revisit this which I’m think will help people. Ubuntu 10.04 has new features.
Great site.
By the way, if anyone wants to use checkgmail, but also wishes it to use the notify-osd system, then there is a patch that is available here on Arch Linux’s AUR: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=29779
Just patch your sources with that and compile, then it should integrate much better with any system on which you can use notify-osd. 🙂
Thanks Zac for the info.
I try all the notifiers for gmail in Lucid, and the best for my is gm-notify. It should be in the oficial ubuntu repositorys.
Good write-up! Just came across another option for Chrome users: Install the following plugin, which will display desktop notifications (though unfortunately in the lower right hand corner, not the upper right). Also, it appears to use the browser’s login cookie so it doesn’t need to store the gmail username/password separately:
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/kkmbodalobogbnejmcdghkfimhodifol?hl=en
Guys, if you are hunting a good solution.. check Popper , the new full featured GMAIL notifier. It seems very complete with features gm-notify and gmail-nptify don’t have like pre/post check scripts
Review :
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/09/email-notification-in-ubuntu-popper