Today, Google released their highly-anticipated native Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. According to the official Gmail blog, the app “combines your favorite features from Gmail mobile web app and iOS into one app so you can be more productive on the go.”

Except apparently, it didn’t really work.

And that’s why Google has yanked the app from the Apple store, only hours after its launch:

@gmail
GmailThe iOS app we launched today contained a bug with notifications. We have pulled the app to fix the problem. Sorry we messed up. 8 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Many users reported errors upon launching the app. Sarah Perez of Tech Crunch writes that it is “unusable.”

“It doesn’t even launch properly, displaying an error message upon startup.”

Not only did it fail to launch on many occasions, but one of it’s key features is failed right out of the gate: push notifications. One of the biggest reasons that a Gmail user would want a native iOS app is for these push notifications, which aren’t available when running Gmail from the web or from Apple’s native Gmail client.

Even without the bugs, users are complaining that it was poorly designed, with little added features to make it a competitive email option. For one, there is no way to manage multiple accounts with the new app.

Here is some Twitter reaction to the app:

This is a pretty big screwup for Google. Having to pull the app amid such negative feedback is rather embarrassing – especially given what the app was. People have wanted a native Gmail client on iOS for years. And this is not the launch they had envisioned.

Thoughts?