10 Tips to Use iPhone Mail App Like a Pro

iPhone Mail app allows you add multiple email accounts and manage them with single app. You can easily add Gmail, Yahoo! and any other custom emails and switch across them quickly. This eliminates the need of using independent apps like Gmail. In this article, we will explore pro tips for using iPhone Mail app.

iPhone Mail App

Mail app is a default app comes with iPhone when you purchase. You can manage the options under “Settings > Mail” section. There are also options available right inside the app like quickly searching across all your mailboxes.

1. Insert Attachment and Documents

When you are creating a new email, simply tap anywhere in the empty message body area. This will show you the pop-up menu with multiple options. You can use the small right arrow at the end of the pop-up to find additional options. Following are the options to insert an attachment in iPhone Mail app:

• Insert Photo or Video – this will open your photo stream just below the email so that you can quickly select and attach the media from your Photos app.
• Add Document – this will open the Files app showing recent documents to attach.
• Scan Document – you can use this option to scan and send the pictures right from the Mail app. Tapping on this will open you camera to take picture. You can crop and edit the picture and attach it in your email. Note that the picture will not be stored in your Photos album when using this option.
• Insert Drawing – this is a cool option to insert a hand drawing. Select this option to open a whiteboard, use your fingers to draw and attach it in the email.

2. Move Email to Another Account

Sometimes you need to email from one account to another account. In this way, instead of forwarding multiple emails, you can simply move and then reply from another box. It is also helpful to share emails when you want to move emails from personal inbox to shared inbox used by your team / family / colleagues.

• Open you email inbox and tap on the “Edit” link on the top right corner.
• Select one or multiple emails and tap on “Move” option showing at the bottom.

• Again, tap on “Move xxx Message(s)” to view all available folders of the current mailbox.
• Tap “Back” link to view all available email accounts and tap on the one to where you want to move the selected emails.
• Now, you will see all the folders of the selected email account and select the folder to move the emails.

3. Use VIP Inbox

VIP Inbox as the name indicates is a useful option in iPhone Mail app to group emails from important persons.

• You can tap on the small information icon against the “VIP” option.

• Tap on “Add VIP…” option and select the people those are important for you from contacts.

• If you want to get customized alert for the emails from VIPs, tap on “VIP Alerts” and setup the notification style.
• Now, the Mail app helps to automatically add emails from VIPs to the VIP Inbox.
• You will see all VIP emails with a small yellow star in the front.

4. View by Thread

Threading email conversations help to group all emails with the same subject. You will see a small blue arrow mark at the right side of the email indicating it has threaded conversation. Tap on that arrow to view any previous emails from that conversation.

If you do not like threaded emails, go to “Settings > Mail” and turn off “Organize by Thread” option under “Threading” section.

5. Block Sender

When you are moving emails to “Junk” folder, Mail app by default will move all further emails to junk for around 90 days. However, you can also permanently block any sender. When you are in “Settings > Mail” section, tap on “Blocked” option under “Threading” and add the contacts you want to block. When you blocked a contact, the sender will get email failure notification when trying to send emails to you.

Remember, you will not receive any emails, phone calls, messages and FaceTime communication from the blocked contacts. If you only want to block users in Mail app, probably use junk option.

6. Change Signature

By default, Mail app will use a signature “Sent from my iPhone” at the bottom of all new emails. This signature will also be added when you replying to any received emails.

This may not look good when replying to your client or responding to professional emails. You can change the signature setup by going to “Settings > Mail” and tap on “Signature” option under “Composing” section.

The good part is that you can change the signature for all accounts or per individual accounts.

7. Search Emails

Open your email from Mail app and simply swipe down to see the search box.

Tap on the search box to see some default options to filter unread, flagged, VIP emails and items with attachment. If you want to find specific email, enter the keyword to dynamically filter based on people, dates, subjects, etc. Though you need to use the search box within an account, Mail app allows you to search emails across all your account.

It is also search only withing unread emails. First tap on the filter unread icon shown on the bottom of the email list. Next, tap on “Unread” link that will be showing in the middle.

Now, you can see the general filters to quickly search emails.

8 Use Bcc

When you create a new email, Mail app allows to add CC and BCC by tapping on the email field that says, “Cc/Bcc, From:”. If you always want to mark your own email in Bcc, then go to “Settings > Mail” section and enable “Always Bcc Myself” option under “Composing” section. Now, you will see the “Bcc” field is filled with the same “From” address email.

9. Word Predictions

Word predictions help to save time and speed up your typing. For example, you can type iPhone to find the relevant suggestions  including related emoji symbols.

Go to “Settings > General > Keyboard” section and tap on “Predictive” option to enable word suggestions. Remember, this will work on all text based apps like Mail, Messages, etc.

10. Mute and Unmute Email

Sometimes, group emails can easily annoy you when you continuously get notifications from hundreds of recipients in the distribution list. It may be of no importance to you at that moment and you want to go through all the replies later when you are free. In this case, you can simply mute the email conversation and focus on your work without distraction. Later you can read and also unmute conversation to receive notifications.

• Tap on the email conversation and tap the “Forward” icon from the bottom.
• Swipe up the options and select “Mute”.

• This will show a mute icon against the email when viewing in the list.
• Anytime later, you can go to the “Forward” option and “Unmute” the email.

Final Words

We hope these tips are useful for you when using iPhone Mail app. Leave a comment if you are using any other tricks in Mail app that can be useful for other readers.