With the latest version of Gmail officially available to Android users, the updated app brings with it a card-like style for conversations, better selection options, and more. While the additions are subtle but welcomed, you may have missed a feature that Google pulled from the application: The option to add a new Gmail account.
In previous versions of the Gmail app, all one would need to do is go into the settings menu inside the application to add a new Gmail account. That option is now missing completely, and after a good five minutes of searching and second-guessing myself, I found that you can no longer add a new Gmail account within the app. Luckily, it’s easy enough to add a new account to Gmail, but you won’t find it in the application.
Even though it can seem terribly obvious in hindsight, here’s the only way you can add a new account in Gmail version 4.6.
- Go into System Settings
- Scroll down to Accounts and tap Add Account
- Select Google
That’s it. From there, you’ll be given the regular setup to add a Gmail account.
While there are only so many times you’ll actually need to add a Gmail account to your device, the new method feels a bit like iOS : Keeping app settings in system settings. Requiring the user to leave an app to get into more settings for the specified app isn’t as intuitive to most Android users but works fine nonetheless.
As simple as it is, hopefully this how-to will save you from a few seconds of confusion when trying to add a new account on the latest version of Gmail for Android.