The Android mobile operating system keeps getting smarter and smarter. I’m blown away by some of the improvement, and looking forward to Android Marshmallow, coming sometime soon. What I’m eager to find out, however, is whether they’ve fixed the problem of locating email account settings.
Seriously: One of the most frustrating things to do on an Android phone or tablet is modify your email account settings. Whether you’re changing a signature or resetting the refresh interval, finding the proper screen can be frustrating.
The problem is this: You believe you’re going down the right rabbit hole and then — wham! — you back up three steps to start over.
As far as I know, a special shortcut doesn’t exist to get to the proper screen. A logical option cannot be found. And a better way will just have to wait.
My preference would be to use the Accounts item in the Settings app: Open the Settings app, choose Accounts, then tap on your email account. Ta-Da! There’s the screen. Isn’t that logical? Doesn’t that make sense? It just doesn’t work that way, however.
To demonstrate, follow those steps:
- Open the Settings app.
- Choose Accounts.
- Choose an email account entry, such as POP3.
Excitement builds! Wow. The screen shows the account name. You see an Account Settings action. Impressive. You’re there, right?
No.
- Tap Account Settings.
See? You back up. You originally thought you were there, but it’s back to Step 3. So you must again:
- Choose your email account.
Finally, you see the Settings screen that’s relevant to a specific account.
The problem also happens from within the Email or Gmail app: You choose Manage Accounts and then must choose an account again, which is just redundant.
A computer’s email program, even the ones designed by Microsoft, can deftly manage multiple accounts at once. Each account features its own Settings or Preferences screen, which is easily and obviously accessible. Google apparently has some homework to do before they get their email account settings to be easily and logically located.
