The questions people ask before they choose a Gmail app for their Mac, answered briefly and honestly. Every answer starts with the answer.
Not from Google. Google makes Gmail apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, but on a Mac Gmail officially lives in the browser. You can still get an app experience in three ways: a mail client such as Apple Mail, a browser window saved as an app, or a dedicated Gmail app such as Nuncio.
Yes, but a single browser window handles it poorly: Google puts all your accounts in one shared session, so links and Google tools keep opening in the wrong account. What works is a separate session per account, either one browser profile each or an app like Nuncio, which isolates every account and switches between them with a click or ⌘1 to ⌘9.
Gmail itself is identical; the difference is everything around it. An app gives Gmail its own Dock icon with an unread count, native macOS notifications that open the right message, its own window and shortcuts, and it can be your default mail program for email links. A browser tab gets buried among the others and only notifies while the browser is running.
Yes. Nuncio shows the regular Gmail web interface, so a Google Workspace account behaves exactly as it does in a browser: the same labels, filters and keyboard shortcuts, and the same sign-in rules from your organisation. If your administrator only allows managed devices or specific browsers, that restriction applies to Nuncio too.
That depends on how the app reaches your mail. Most mail clients ask Google for access to your mailbox and process your messages in the app or on their own servers. A wrapper such as Nuncio requests no access at all: it displays Gmail's own website, you sign in on Google's page, and the app is sandboxed and reviewed by Apple.
No. Your mail travels between your Mac and Google only. Nuncio has no servers and no user accounts, so there is nowhere your messages could go. For badges and notifications the app only looks at Gmail's unread count and at the notifications Gmail itself produces, on your Mac, and none of that ever leaves it.
Read more: Privacy policy
You sign in on Google's own sign-in page, shown inside the app, with your usual two-step verification. Nuncio does not read, store or send your password. Once you are signed in, the session is kept on your Mac in storage that belongs to that account alone, just as a browser keeps you signed in.
Not inside the app. Apple allows passkeys only in full web browsers, so they fail in every app that embeds a web view, whatever permissions you grant. Nuncio therefore hides the passkey option on Google's sign-in page. You sign in once with your password plus a confirmation on your phone or a code, and the session stays.
Apple Mail and Mimestream are mail clients: they fetch your messages and rebuild them in an interface of their own, which brings a combined inbox and offline reading. Nuncio shows Gmail itself, so search, labels, filters, snooze, Chat and Meet work exactly as in the browser. Choose a mail client for one combined inbox, and Nuncio for the real Gmail per account.
Chrome profiles work and cost nothing, and for two accounts they may be all you need. The price is a separate window for every profile, no overview of unread mail across accounts, no count on the Dock icon, and notifications only while Chrome is running. Nuncio keeps all accounts in one window, each with its own unread badge.
For Gmail, yes. Nuncio covers what those apps are mostly used for: several Gmail accounts side by side in the real Gmail interface, notifications and unread counts per account, and the Google tools next to each inbox. It deliberately leaves out workspaces and a library of other web apps. Mailplane has not been sold since 2021.
No. Nuncio needs a Mac with Apple silicon, M1 or later, running macOS 14 Sonoma or newer. There is no Windows version and no Intel build. On a Windows PC the closest equivalent is to install Gmail as an app from Chrome or Edge, which the guide below explains step by step.
Yes. Nuncio turns Gmail's desktop notifications into native macOS notifications for each account, and a click opens that exact message in the right account. Only Nuncio needs to be running, not a browser. Do switch on desktop notifications once in Gmail's own settings for every account, because Gmail sends nothing while that option is off.
macOS accepts only an app as the default mail program, not a website, so you need an app that opens Gmail. Open Apple Mail, go to Settings ▸ General ▸ Default email reader and pick that app. With Nuncio selected, every email link opens a new Gmail message, and with several accounts you choose which one sends it.
Yes. Each account can have its own Google tools as tabs next to the inbox: Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, Chat, Contacts, Keep and Photos, all signed in as that account. Meet calls run inside the app, and macOS asks for the camera and microphone at your first call. Calendar reminders arrive as native notifications.
Only in Chrome. Gmail's offline mode is tied to the Chrome browser, so it does not work in Safari or in apps that display the Gmail website, Nuncio included. If you regularly need your mail without a connection, a mail client that downloads your messages, such as Apple Mail, is the better choice.
Nuncio is a yearly subscription with a seven-day free trial, billed by Apple through the Mac App Store. It costs US$39.99 per year in the United States, £39.99 in the United Kingdom and €44.99 in the euro countries; elsewhere the App Store shows the price in your currency before you start. One subscription covers all your accounts.
Through Apple, not through us. Open the App Store on your Mac, click your name at the bottom of the sidebar, open Subscriptions and cancel Nuncio there. On older macOS versions you reach Subscriptions through Account Settings. Cancel at least a day before the trial or the year ends and nothing further is charged. Your accounts and settings stay on your Mac.
As many as you need: the app sets no limit and the price stays the same. The first nine accounts get the shortcuts ⌘1 to ⌘9, and each account has its own colour, name and unread badge. Every inbox stays loaded for instant switching, so each account uses roughly the memory of one open Gmail tab.
No more than Gmail itself needs. Nuncio is a small native app that uses the WebKit engine built into macOS instead of bundling a browser of its own, so the download is only a few megabytes. Memory goes to Gmail, roughly one browser tab per account. In the recommended Efficient setting, Google tools you have not used for fifteen minutes are unloaded, and background work pauses in Low Power Mode.
All your Gmail accounts side by side, the real Gmail interface, native notifications. Seven days free, then a yearly subscription.
Apple Mail, Safari and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc. Chrome is a trademark of Google LLC. Mimestream, Mailplane, Shift, Kiwi for Gmail and other product names belong to their respective owners and are mentioned only for comparison.
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