An update to Gmail started rolling out this morning, bringing it from version 4.6.1 to 4.7. We have the APK for you below, as usual, because waiting is for suckers.

What's New

Vacation responder

The most obvious new addition to Gmail 4.7 is the Vacation Responder. You can set start and end dates, enter a subject and some text, and check a toggle to only send the vacation response to your contacts. Finally, you can enable and disable the whole responder with another toggle. The vacation responder is certainly a welcome addition to the mobile app, considering that by the time you realize you need the feature enabled, you may only have your trusty phone or tablet but no computer.

KitKat printing

Gmail 4.7 also includes support for cloud printing, which is a new feature built into Android 4.4 KitKat. You can print all messages in a thread or select just the ones you want. Yay!

Archive downloading

I can't believe it's finally here - the feature we've been waiting for, since... 2009? Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce the banishment of the Unfortunately, you can't save or open this type of attachment message, which specifically applied to several archive formats, and if we're being honest, was the most ridiculous limitation in the name of user security and safety I can think of. Zip downloads are finally a go. And it's only the end of 2013. Amazing!

In fact, it's not just zip extensions - here's the full list of file types that are no longer disallowed:

  1. application/zip
  2. application/x-gzip
  3. application/x-bzip2
  4. application/x-compress
  5. application/x-compressed
  6. application/x-tar

Left: Gmail 4.6; right: Gmail 4.7

Update: You can now send any file too

With the removal of the above limitation, we can now send any files we want as well. Previously, only two annoyingly limiting options Attach picture and Attach video were present. Hooray!

Left: Gmail 4.6; right: Gmail 4.7

Update: Better performance on low-memory devices

According to the official announcement, which was just posted by +Gmail, devices with low RAM should now benefit from improved performance:

Just in time for the holidays, Gmail on Android adds vacation responder, attachment support for any file type and more

If you forget to set a vacation responder as you scramble to pack for a flight, you’re in luck since you can now create or update an auto responder message right in the Gmail app on Android. In addition to photos and videos, you can send attachments—documents, PDFs, zip files—of any type. You can also print hard copies of your emails if you’re using Android 4.4 KitKat. And finally, you’ll notice enhanced performance of the app on low memory devices as part of Project Svelte (http://goo.gl/zD5thU).

Spot anything else? You know what to do - drop a comment down below.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

File name: com.google.android.gm-4.7 (941620).apk.

Version: 4.7 (Android 4.0+)

MD5: b1a466e6e205117c0065ba6de87acac4.

Gmail Developer: Google LLC
Price: Free
4.2
Download

Thanks, +DerekTraini, and Stephen Zeck, and Santiago Rosales!