RIM recently released the Enhanced Google Mail Plugin for BlackBerry BIS users. This plugin enables some of the most used Gmail-specific features that the native Mobile Gmail client has, including: Archiving messages, starring and labeling messages, reporting spam, local and remote Gmail searches, and conversation view. The advantage of the new Enhanced Google Mail Plugin is that it enables these features in the native messaging interface, which allows for standard push BlackBerry messaging without having to go into a dedicated application.

To enable this feature, you need to deactivate your Gmail account in BIS and then reactivate it via the BlackBerry BIS web interface. Once activated on BIS, you will receive an email from the activation server with instructions and a link on installing the Enhanced Google Mail Plugin directly from your BlackBerry. If you missed the link when you reinstalled your email you can point re-access the link directly from the BlackBerry browser: http://www.blackberry.com/gmail/.

The only (slight) disadvantage is that this cannot be used in the main Messages application, but needs to be accessed as a separate Inbox.

Details from RIM’s Enhanced Google Mail Plugin Overview:

Archive a message

• Remove a message from the inbox by moving it to the archive folder.
• Messages that are moved to the archive folder will be hidden from view in Enhanced Google Mail, but will stay visible in the Messages application on the BlackBerry smartphone.

Add a star to a message

• Use stars to mark important messages.
• Stars can be combined with text labels.
• A star that is applied to a message in Google Mail after the message has already been received by the BlackBerry Internet Service will not be synchronized with the corresponding message on the BlackBerry smartphone.

Add a label to a message

• Categorize and organize email messages by clicking the Labels command from the menu.
• Apply multiple labels to a single message.
• A label that is applied to a message in Google Mail after the message has already been received by the BlackBerry Internet Service will not be synchronized with the corresponding message on the BlackBerry smartphone.
• Changes made to labels in Google Mail will not be applied to the corresponding labels on the BlackBerry smartphone. When a label is renamed in Google Mail, it is synchronized as a new label on the BlackBerry smartphone.
• Labels cannot be created, renamed, or deleted on the BlackBerry smartphone

Report spam email message

• Click Report Spam from the menu to remove a spam email message from the inbox, delete it from your BlackBerry, and move it to the spam folder in Google Mail.
• Messages in the spam folder cannot be searched using the BlackBerry smartphone.
• Email messages marked as spam on the BlackBerry smartphone will be synchronized with the Google Mail account.
• Email messages marked as spam in Google Mail will not be marked as spam on the BlackBerry smartphone if they have already been retrieved by the BlackBerry Internet Service.

Perform local and remote searches

• Perform a local search by searching email messages and conversations on the BlackBerry smartphone.
• Perform a remote search by searching the entire Google Mail mailbox.

View related messages as a single conversation (conversation view)

• Group related messages into a single conversation for easy reference. A conversation appears on a single line in the inbox. This is also referred to as the threaded view.
• Conversations in the inbox are marked with an envelope icon and include header information with the subject line and number of participants.
• To expand a conversation and view its individual messages, click the conversation or click Open Conversation from the menu.

Note: Google Mail enhanced features are only available within the Enhanced Google Mail plug-in and are not available when viewing Google Mail messages in the Messages application on the BlackBerry smartphone.

RIM releases Enhanced Google Mail (Gmail) Plugin for BlackBerry