What is the deal with Push GMail?  Why can’t we delete emails?

I am about this far (I’m holding my thumb and index finger less than an inch apart right now) from going back to IMAP for accessing my GMail via my iPhone.  Either that, or I’m going to just use the web app.

No one was happier than I was that Google finally put out push GMail via their Exchange server emulation.  It is a Godsend, if you can get past the quirks.  Okay, the one big huge unbelievable quirk!

If you’ve been getting your GMail via push, then you know what I’m talking about.  That’s right.  You can’t delete email.  I’ve tried everything I know how to do and it just doesn’t work.

The Mail app on my iPhone has a delete button.  But the default (and the only) behavior is to archive the email.  That’s right, it archives it.  So I thought, okay, I can just move email to the Trash folder, right?  Nope, that archives it as well.

In the end, the only method I have come up with to delete an email is to move it to a folder (label) that I created called “ToDelete” and then delete it via the web later.

But come on, this is ridiculous.  Google is famous for letting us do things the way we want to, allowing us a myriad ways to skin whatever cat we wish to skin.  But GMail’s “why delete anything” moniker has been taken too far.  Does anyone really keep those Classmates.com emails?  What about those NewEgg deals of the week?  Mint notifications?  Why on earth would we ever need to keep those around?

But Google’s idea is that nothing need be deleted, and to prove it, they’re forcing us into keeping them.  This is an Apple way of doing things.  That’s right, I said it.  Apple can get pretty fascist about their “our way or the highway” attitude.

Don’t get me wrong.  Herr Steve’s way of doing things is generally quite good.  And I think that’s what most people mean when they say that Apple products “just work.”  The reality is that they work, yes, but in only 1 or 2 ways.  The PC/Windows idea is that there are no limits, it’s just that only a handful of methods work, so you have to figure those out.

In any case, Google’s idea on push GMail is different than their default behavior for the IMAP, so it is totally at odds, and I can see it being very confusing for the likes of the non-technorati.

So come on, Google.  Give us a choice here.  And build in a way for us to delete email from our mobile devices.  Pleeeeeeease?