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Google: Gmail on iPhone's iOS 14? Now you can make it your default mail app

But rebooting an iPhone will still return Apple Mail as the default email app until Apple releases a fix.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer

Google has now updated its Gmail app for iOS 14, bringing the ability for iPhone and iPad owners to make Gmail the default app instead of Apple's own Mail app. 

The default mail app capability is the only listed new feature of Gmail version 6.0.200825 for iOS on the App Store. It follows an update to Chrome that enables it to be the default browser on iOS 14. 

Users can make Gmail the default by opening iOS settings and going to Gmail, then tapping Default Mail App and then selecting Gmail, Google notes in a new support page. Google flagged the new capability in a tweet on Monday.

SEE: Top 10 iPad tips (free PDF) (TechRepublic) 

Apple changed iOS 14, which it released last Wednesday, to finally allow iPhone and iPad owners to set non-Apple browsers and email apps as the default. 

But users discovered last week that rebooting a device running on iOS 14 returned Apple Mail and Safari to the default after users had set alternatives like Google Chrome as the default. 

Apple confirmed to ZDNet's sister site CNET that this behavior is a bug that will be fixed in a future update. That means that even though Gmail can now be set as the default, a reboot will return Apple Mail as the default and the same goes for non-Safari browsers. 

Microsoft last week updated its Outlook email app for iOS 14 to allow fans of the popular app to set it as the default. It also updated its Edge browser for iOS to support the new default system. 

Apple has published a guide for developers detailing how they can configure their email or browser to be set as the default. 

Earlier this month, the unexpected release of iOS 14 caught developers off guard, giving them just a day to update their apps as iOS 14 rolled out.  

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