Today I was about to
download a pdf file attached in a Gmail email
when to my surprise I can't download it on my Android smartphone. After looking for information on how to download attachments from Gmail on Android devices I see that you have to use an application to add this functionality.
In principle, according to Android developers, this limitation is implemented for security, since Gmail attachments can be malicious files, so the Gmail native application only allows us to view certain types of files (images, videos).
How to download an attachment from Gmail.
The application to download attachments with any Gmail extension is Gmail Attachment Download
(outdated application)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.poofinc.gmailattach
and once we install it it doesn't need to be configured or activated, since it works as a plugin for the native Gmail application on Android.
As a negative note to the program, I must say that it does not allow me to download files with zip extension (compressed files), which I dislike quite a lot. For the above reason I have started using cloud storage services such as
Dropbox
or
Google Drive
since they avoid these problems.
A more complex alternative is to use an email client type
K-9 Mail
and configure in our Gmail account to synchronize emails, it is the only possible way to
download any Gmail attachment using Android
.
How to add attachments to an email from Gmail.
Another surprise I took when I tried to attach a pdf file from my Android device to an email I was writing, the surprise was that I was not allowed to attach files with this extension since it only allows you to attach images or videos.
In this case, the solution is to install the Gmail Attach
application (outdated application)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartanuj.gmailattach
that works as a plugin, so no Requires configuration or activation.
Problems with Gmail attachments and the native Android application that limits its functionality are covered with the previous applications. I insist that Google should do something about it, since limiting the functionality of Gmail to sending images and videos is excessive because nowadays formats such as pdf, epub e-books or Power-Point presentations are handled that do not have to be malicious .