One of the great things about Gmail for mobile devices is that they are ad-free, unlike the web version of the service. Given that it is a free service, it is understandable that Google is looking for a way to monetize it, and it seems that ads could be coming in the next version of the app for Android. According to the APK teardown by the folks at Android Police, it has been discovered that in Gmail 4.6, there is a strong likelihood that ads will be added to the app. This is according to strings that were discovered within the APK which makes multiple references to the ads.
There also appears to be a whole new library added to the mix called ads, which we guess is kind of obvious too. Based on what the folks at Android Police have found, it seems that the ads can actually be saved by users if they wish and will be stored within the inbox of their Gmail account. Alternatively dismissed ads will then be deleted. We’re not sure why anyone would want to save an ad, but we guess if you do, there’s an option for that. No word on when ads will be introduced, but we guess we’ll keep an eye out for that.