Apple Mail

Use Mail   to send and read email messages. Your Apple iCloud account is connected by default. You can import other email accounts, like Gmail and Yahoo, and use the Mail app to manage all your email from one place. Open Mail to see your Inbox.

The inbox lists your incoming messages in chronological order, with the newest at the top. Unread messages are indicated with a blue dot to the left of the preview. The illustration below shows each message with a preview of two lines of the message. You can set the number of lines you want to preview in Settings  > Mail > Preview.

You can flag, archive, or send a message to Trash directly from the Inbox by swiping left or right and choosing an option. You can set your options in Settings  > Mail > Swipe Options.

Reading an email

• Tap an email in the Inbox list to open the email and read it.
• On iPhones with 3D Touch, press to peek, then swipe up, left, or right for more options. Or press harder to open the message.
• Touch and hold to open a preview with Quick Actions like Reply and Forward.

Writing an email

You can create an email using the keyboard or use Siri to address, dictate, and send an email using voice commands. You can also draw in an email and add attachments and photos. Here are some of your options:

• Tap  to open a new email message and the keyboard.
• Tell Siri to email someone in your Contacts. Say, “send an email to John Smith and say I’ll see you at lunch, thanks.” or “Email Susan and say thanks for the flowers.”
• Ask Siri something like, “Any new mail from John Smith today?” Siri will do the search for you.
• Tap to dictate a message. (You can also use it to fill in the To and Subject boxes.)
• To add a photo or file attachment, or to draw in the message, double-tap in the body of the message and tap to select from the options.

As you type a name into the To box, Mail will display matches from your Contacts. Once you see the name of the contact you want to write to, tap it and Mail will complete adding the contact’s email address. You can add additional email addresses or tap the Cc/Bcc button to add names for those you wish to copy for informational purposes. Cc is a holdover from the old paper days and stands for carbon copy. The recipient can see the names you add to the Cc box. Bcc stands for blind carbon copy. The names you add here cannot be seen by anyone but you.

Sending an email

Once you are ready to send your email, tap .

If you immediately think of something you should have included in your email or change your mind about sending it, you have ten seconds to tap Undo send at the bottom of the screen to pull back the email.

You can give yourself more time to change your mind about sending an email. Go to Settings > Mail, tap Undo Send Delay, then choose a different amount of time.

Adding other email accounts

When you activate a new device, your Apple email is added by the Set Up Assistant. To add other email accounts, such as a Gmail, AOL, Microsoft, or Yahoo email account: Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts and tap Add Account.

Managing messages

The Mail app has options for handling individual messages. The Trash and Archive commands may differ depending on the inbox you are viewing. The options available for handling email may vary depending on whether the message is in your iCloud account or an imported account like Gmail or Yahoo Mail.

Many options are hidden under the Reply button. The following is an explanation of the most used commands:

• Reply. Starts composing a reply to the email address that sent the message.
• Reply all. Starts composing a reply to the email address that sent the message AND all the recipients of that message.
• Forward. Sends the email to another email address. Keep in mind that all the email addresses that are visible to you (everyone not in the Bcc field) will be visible to whomever you forward it to.
• Trash. Moves the email to the Trash folder. Items in Trash may be deleted after a set amount of time, depending on the provider.
• Archive. Removes the email from the inbox and stores it indefinitely. You can find it again with a search.
• Move Message. Moves the email to a folder you choose.
• Flag. Marks the email with a colored flag, which can be helpful for organizing. Tap a color to set the flag, and tap Unflag to remove it.

Searching for messages

Type keywords into the search box at the top of the message preview pane to look for senders, words within messages, and message states. Message states refer to the status and tags you’ve applied to the message. States include Read or Unread, Flag, VIP, and whether a message has an attachment. For instance, typing “John attachment VIP unread” would return a list of all unread messages marked as VIP from or to John with attachments. Type “July” to filter messages to those that contain the word July or were received in the month of July.

Checking for new messages

Scroll up to the most recent message in the Inbox. Then drag the Inbox window down and release to force a refresh. You can also ask Siri to “check for new email messages.”

Shake to undo

Some commands, including Move to Junk and Archive, can be undone by immediately shaking the device.

Adding a sender to VIP

You can add a sender to your VIP list by tapping their name in an open email, then tapping Add to VIP. Messages from this contact will show up in the VIP mailbox.

Changing the style of flagged messages

Go to Settings  > Mail > Flag Style and choose between a colored dot or a colored flag icon.

Managing multiple messages

To select multiple messages to delete, move, or mark, tap Edit, then tap to select messages. Selected messages will display a checkmark in a circle to the left. Tap a selected message again to deselect. Then, at the bottom of the message list, tap the action you want to apply to the selected messages. If you make a mistake, shake the device immediately to undo the action.

Adding photos, documents, and sketches

Double-tap in the body of your message (or tap above the keyboard) to display additional options for adding photos, attachments, and drawings.

• Add a saved photo or video from your iPhone .
• Open the Camera app to take a picture to add to the email.
• Scan and insert a document.
• Use your camera to read and insert text from nearby objects.
• Add a file from iCloud, Dropbox, or another connected cloud service.
• Open Markup to sketch, draw, or annotate an image, video, or PDF.