Mia for Gmail is a Mac only application that sit quietly in the menu bar and notifies you when there is an incoming email.

  1. To get started, simply download Mia for Gmail from its website. The free version only allows you to connect to one Gmail account. You can upgrade to the premium version for $2, and it will allow you to connect to multiple Gmail accounts.

  2. Open the .dmg file and drag it to the Applications folder.

  3. Launch the Mia for Gmail app from the Launchpad.

  4. Once launched, you will find a Gmail icon in the menu bar. It will also prompt you to add a Gmail account.

Click the “+” button to add your Gmail account. The free version only allows you to add one Gmail account.

When you are logging into your Gmail account, it will ask you to grant permission to MIA For Gmail. Click Allow.

  1. Once connected, you should see the MIA Gmail icon lit up and showing the number of unread emails in your inbox.

Clicking the icon will show a list of the emails in the drop-down window. It only shows the ten most recent emails from your Inbox.

Clicking on any email will open it up in a separate window where you can read and delete/archive/reply.

Preferences

In the Preferences section, there are a few things that you can configure: Notification – Get notified for every incoming email. This can be a disturbance if you have plenty of incoming emails every day. Open at login – This will make MIA for Gmail run every time you log in to your computer. Hide status mail counter – This will hide the unread count beside the MIA for Gmail icon. View only unread emails – Only display unread email in the drop-down list. Check every xx mins – You can configure how often the app checks your Gmail inbox.

Conclusion

MIA for Gmail is a nifty app that allows you to manage your Gmail account(s) without a browser. It is not a complete replacement for your Gmail web account, as it doesn’t come with many of the useful features in Gmail like search your email, label sorting, etc. Also, it only displays the top ten emails in your Inbox, and there is no option to configure that which is rather disappointing. However, for those who can’t live without leaving their email inbox open, and yet still want to kick the habit of peeking into their Inbox every few minutes, this app is worth trying out.