Maybe I'm the last one in the world to figure this out, but there is a way to set Gmail up on an iOS device so that email will get pushed to it rather than simply having a static fetch interval (like 15 minutes) or manual update. If you simply add a Gmail account to the iOS Mail app, it will not allow push notification.
However, Google has instructions on their website on how to set it up as an Exchange connection:
Gmail as an Exchange connection
And this works like a charm. I still don't have it sync contacts or calendars, because I've migrated those to iCloud. But it is pushing Gmail to the phone, which is exactly what I was trying to get it to do.
However, Google has instructions on their website on how to set it up as an Exchange connection:
Gmail as an Exchange connection
And this works like a charm. I still don't have it sync contacts or calendars, because I've migrated those to iCloud. But it is pushing Gmail to the phone, which is exactly what I was trying to get it to do.