This is useful for people who use multiple clients to access Gmail. They will now be to read and make changes to their Gmail accounts on one client, and those activities will be updated on the other clients they use.

Gmail users have been requesting the ability to sync their devices for quite some time now. Previously, Gmail supported POP3 (post office protocol), which meant that when changes made to Gmail on one device were not reflected when users logged back into their webmail on another device.

Users will soon see IMAP Access under the Settings menu, Google said. It is rolling out the new IMAP (internet message access protocol) feature during the next few days.

Curiously, Google singled out iPhone users in its short IMAP announcement. Another way to use Gmail on your iPhone is through the browser, Google said.