In the cloud-connected 21st century, Google is currently king. Chances are you’ve got Gmail for email and make use of Google Drive and its associated apps for storing files and working on the go. But while there are dedicated apps for accessing these features on your mobile, what about the desktop?

Rather than tie up your web browser or make do with a third-party email client such as Thunderbird, Kiwi for Gmail Lite aims to provide you with a dedicated app that gives you access to your Gmail account, spanning mail, calendar and contacts. A separate Kiwi for Gmail app can be purchased through the App Store for $9.99 that not only allows you to connect up to six accounts at once, but also run G-Suite (Docs, Sheets and Slides) and Google Drive through the app too.

Kiwi for Gmail Lite doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel – at first glance it’s little more than a wrapper for the web-based interface, so will be instantly familiar to those currently accessing Google services through their browser.

That does it a disservice though, because Kiwi for Gmail basically integrates these services into your desktop, with separate windows for composing email and the ability to make Kiwi your default mail handler.

Everything works slickly and as you’d expect – if you’re looking to access your Gmail account from outside your browser, then Kiwi for Gmail Lite is well worth taking for a road-test.

What's new in 2.0.15?

- Updated underlying framework
- Today View / Focus Filters
- Fixed several bugs