How to Attach Files, Photos and Drawings in iPhone Email?

All iPhone models come with a default Mail app for connecting your email accounts from various service providers like Gmail or Outlook. With Mail app, you can easily get notification the moment when the emails arrive in your inbox. Many iPhone users think they can only create text messages while composing emails. However, you can easily format the text and insert attachments in the body of your email. If you wonder how to attach files in your email, here is all what you can do.

Attach Files in iPhone Emails

You can insert file attachments with any email providers like Gmail, Yahoo! or with your custom domain email. The good part is that iPhone allows to send hand drawings and scanned documents in addition to photos and files.

• Open Mail app and create a new email or reply to any email that you want to insert an attachment.
• Now, tap on the empty message area to see a pop-up appears with formatting options.
• Use the small arrow at the end of the pop-up to view additional hidden options in the pop-up.
• Here, you can see the options for inserting file and photos in your email content.

1. Insert Photo or Video

Select this option from the pop-up to insert single multiple media files in your email. This will open the photos stream in your iPhone showing the recently taken photos. Tap on the items to select and the selected item will be instantly inserted in your email. You can also insert multiple items at once by simply tapping on them.

If you want to search photos or videos from your Photos app, tap on “All Photos” link. This will open the larger view of the photo stream where you can search the media files to insert them in your email.

2. Attach File

You can tap on “Attach File” option from the pop-up when you want to insert a file in your email. This will open the “Files” app from where you can search and attach a file. You can either insert from “Recents” section or browse through files available in your iPhone / iCloud storage. The difference here is that you can only select a single file and not multiple files like the previous option. In addition, you can select all type of files like a document, picture, video or a zip file.

3. Scan Document

This is super useful when you want to scan an identification card or similar document in your email.

• Simply select “Scan Document” option to open your camera.
• Position your document on a flat surface and adjust the camera settings like flash/colors.
• Tap on the capture button to scan the document and you will see the rectangle box on the scanned image. Drag and resize the corners to align the document and trim off unnecessary outer area.
• If you are not happy with the scanned document, use “Retake” option to scan the document again.
• Finally, tap on “Keep Scan” and scan another document if required. Otherwise, tap on “Save” option to insert the scanned document in your email.
• A single scanned document will be attached as an image while multiple scanned documents will be compiled and inserted as a PDF file.

4. Insert Drawing

The final option for inserting an attachment is to use hand drawing. You can use this to send a secret symbol or custom hand drawn pictures to the recipients. When you tap on “Insert Drawing” option, iPhone will open the drawing pad. You can select the pen type, color and draw using your finger. There is also a scale available in the drawing pad to make straight lines with precise measurement along with options for adding text / signature / description in the drawing.

Once finished, tap on the “Done” link showing on top left corner and select “Insert Drawing” option to insert the drawing in your email.

Using Toolbar Icons for Inserting Files in Emails

There is an alternative option to insert pictures in emails. Tap on the small arrow showing on the suggestion bar showing on top of the keyboard layout. This will show additional icons and tap on image, file, scan or camera icon to open corresponding option.

Sometime, you will directly see the icons on top the keyboard layout. This happens if you have disabled “Predictive” option under “Settings > General > Keyboard” section.

Final Words

These are the options available in iPhone Mail app for you to insert any type of files in the emails. You can also simply copy any file and paste in your email by selecting “Paste” from the pop-up. The only problem is the Mail app does not offer any image editing option. So, you must first prepare the image and then insert it.