Google’s Gmail app for Android was updated today and brought with it some new tricks, added features, and more speed.

Jumping right in, with this update, Google has improved message replies, access to quoted text, and more.

According to a post on the Google Mobile blog, “As you scroll through a conversation, your most important message actions will now stick to the top of the screen, one click away, no matter how long the email is.”

If you’re reading a long thread you can can now view previous messages more easily, just like in the desktop version of Gmail. Tapping “Show quoted text” will display the previous message, so the context is still there, just tucked away until you ask to see it. This will save me a significant amount of time that I’ll no longer have to spend scrolling to the bottom of an email thread to get to the latest reply!

If was only a matter of time before the new “Priority Inbox” was enabled on the Android version of Gmail. Unfortunately, this version of Gmail only has limited support for the Priority Inbox. If you’ve enabled it in the desktop version of Gmail, you’ll see an “Important” label that shows all messages flagged as important. To make accessing “Important” emails even easier you can add a shortcut to them on one of your home screens.

What’s better, according to the article, this release signifies the decoupling of the Gmail app from Android version releases, meaning that you can now get updates to the app (and potentially the app itself) for free, directly from the Android Market.

Lastly, if you’re running a version less than Android 2.2, you’re out of luck. This version of Gmail needs Froyo to run. Also, “there is a known issue with important actions not sticking to the top of the screen on HTC phones running Anrdoid 2.2, like the EVO 4G and the Droid Incredible”. Google is aware of the problem and are working on a solution.

(Source: Google Mobile Blog)