Want to have recent emails within the easiest of reaches and not glue yourself to the Gmail app on your phone?

In addition to alerting you to new messages, the Gmail iOS app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch can collect emails (including sender, subject and beginning words) in Notification Center. Of course, you can also opt to see emails only in Notification Center and forego the sweet audible alerts or scribblings on the lock screen.

As an alternative to the Gmail app's alerts, you can also set up Gmail in iPhone Mail and have it check for new messages periodically, adding them to Notification Center as it fetches them, or add Gmail as an Exchange account with push email support.

See New Gmail Messages in iOS Notification Center

To have new emails coming in to your Gmail account listed and previewed in your iPhone or iPad's Notification Center:

• Make sure the Gmail app is installed.
• Go to the Home screen of your iOS device.
• Tap Settings.
• Select Notifications.
• Find and tap Gmail.
• Make sure Notification Center is ON.
• To choose how many messages are kept visible in Notification Center:
  • Tap Show.
  • Select the desired number of emails.
  • (Gmail will hide the oldest message displayed in Notification Center when the maximum number is already shown and a new email arrives.)

Tapping an email in Notification Center will open the message in the Gmail app.

See below for disabling notifications per account or limiting them to the Primary inbox tab.

To prevent Gmail emails from appearing on your lock screen:

• Go to the Gmail Notification Center settings; see above.
• Make sure View in Lock Screen is OFF.

To turn off sounds for new Gmail messages:

• Open the Gmail app's notification options in Settings (see above).
• Make sure Sounds is OFF.

To turn off new message alerts from the Gmail app (and have incoming emails collected silently in Notification Center, for instance):

• Go to the Gmail notification settings. (See above.)
• Choose the kind of alerts you would like to receive under Alert Style:
  • None — no interrupting alerts
  • Banners — get a brief note (that disappears on its own) at the top of the screen when new mail arrives
  • Alerts — get notifications for new messages that you have to tap away before continuing

Disable Notifications for Certain Accounts or Limit Them to Primary Inbox Messages (Also per Account)

To configure which messages appear in Notification Center for a Gmail account:

• Open the Gmail app.
• Swipe to the right in any folder.
• Make sure the account you want to configure is selected.
  • Tap your user name at the top to switch accounts. (You will have to swipe right again after picking the account.)
• Tap the settings gear.
• Make sure the desired notification setting is enabled under Notifications:
  • All New Mail for all incoming messages.
  • Primary Only for messages on the inbox's Primary tab only (with inbox tabs enabled).
  • None for no new mail notifications for the account.
• Tap Save.

(Updated June 2013)