Yes the title is true. You can now read, reply, star, access your mail Contacts, search etc using GMail.
You probably sitting there wondering how is it possible to send an email without internet connection?
Yes its not possible!
But whatever you write and whatever changes you make to your GMail when you are offline will be updated once you are connected to the internet using the same computer. And all the emails that you typed while you were offline will be sent automatically once you are online.
Thanks to Google GMail team.
Here is what GMail team has to say about it:
Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection. And if you’re on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you’re “borrowing” your neighbor’s wireless), you can choose to use “flaky connection mode,” which is somewhere in between: it uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background. Our goal is to provide nearly the same browser-based Gmail experience whether you’re using the data cached on your computer or talking directly to the server.
This feature is going to save millions of time. We really love this feature.
Yahoo and MSN had provided this feature previously, but they need a client software to be installed. But Google doesn’t need one, except GoogleGears, and you need not even install that small software, if you are using Google Chrome.
To use this feature:-
Goto labs inside your GMail.
Enable Offline and save it.
To enable Offline Gmail, click the Offline link at the top(“Offline0.1” link in the upper right-hand side corner of your account, next to your username).
Now you will get a prompt to inform you to download Google Gears.
Now synchronization starts. All your email till date will be downloaded to your local hard disk. And if you are having a slow internet connection then you can click on the Flaky Connection mode to handle it.
Google Gmail team has been using this feature from many days, so we hope that the feature is almost ready to public use without any problem.
Offline Gmail will be available to everyone who uses Gmail in US or UK English over the next couple of days, so if you don’t see it under the Labs tab yet, it should be there soon.