Apple has officially rolled out iOS 18.2, and with it come some major updates to the native Mail app. As both an email strategist and someone who lives in the inbox daily, I took a closer look at what these changes mean for marketers—from new inbox categories to branded mail icons, Digest View, and AI-generated summaries.
In the video below, I walk through what’s new, what’s different from previous Apple updates, and what you should start doing now to keep your email strategy on track.
Introduction
My name is Miriam Domain. I am the Senior Email Marketing Strategist at emfluence, and today I’m going to be talking a little bit about Apple’s latest update, iOS 18.2, and what that means for email marketers like me and you.
First things first, I do have to give credit to the blog post Hands-On with Apple Intelligence: Inbox Tabs and Message Summaries for iOS 18.2 by Nicole Merlin on knack.com. That is where I got a lot of this research, and also where I got a lot of the images and screenshots that you will see on these slides.
Inbox Categories [00:40]
Alright, so right off the bat, we’re going to be talking about Apple’s new categories. These aren’t Gmail tabs—they are Apple categories—though they pretty much function the same way.
Now, automatically, messages will be grouped into four different categories: Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions.
This does mean that your email has a less likely chance of getting into that Primary tab. However, because these operate a little bit differently than Gmail categories, you can still have high-priority messages—or messages that readers are going to seek out—that end up in either the Transactions tab or the Updates tab.
Promotions is pretty much the same as Gmail’s Promotions tab, which is going to be a lot of marketing-based emails, but people could be looking for those emails too.
While this might mean that your emails are a little less visible, I also think that there’s a chance that over time this could actually help the user experience and help readers get more conditioned to checking these various tabs rather than only looking at the messages in their Primary tab.
One thing to call out, though, is that if Apple thinks a message falls into more than one category, it will be displayed in multiple categories—which can get a little confusing at times but helps the user experience.
One other thing to note is that this is able to be reversed. The user does have the option to update their settings so they go back to seeing their emails in list view. This is going to be the new default, but they can revert back to that old view.
Branded Mail Icons [02:26]
Next, we’re going to be talking about branded mail icons. These are managed in Apple’s Business Connect platform.
If you’re familiar with BIMI, they’re similar but different. The nice thing is that it’s a far less rigorous process to be able to have a branded mail icon displayed in Apple Mail than it would be to register for BIMI.
But it pretty much functions the same way—where you can upload your logo and it’ll appear in that inbox next to your message.
This will be displayed both in inbox and in Digest View, which is something that I’ll talk more about in a little bit.
If you do not upload an icon or a logo in branded mail, then Apple will show a generic icon that may or may not be really relevant to your brand and your business.
Ironically, in the example you’ll see down below, Apple is the sender that does not yet have a branded mail icon, so they have that generic business icon. Whereas Amazon—you can see their logo.
This is a really great opportunity to increase open rates, engagement, and overall brand recognition as well.
Digest View [03:42]
Alright, next—as promised—we are going to be talking about Digest View.
If all of the following are true, you can see messages in Digest View:
- Categories must be enabled (you can only see Digest View in categorized tabs, not in list mode)
- You have to be in the Transactions, Updates, or Promotions tab (Digest View is not shown in the Primary tab)
- Group by sender must be turned on
Even though Digest View only shows up if all those conditions are met, those are all the default settings—so most people will likely be seeing messages in Digest View.
What Digest View does is take all messages from one sender and group them together. You’ll only see a preview of the top portion of the email—about 350 pixels, though it varies by device—of the latest emails from that sender.
While in Digest View, readers have the ability to re-categorize the sender by hitting the three-dot icon. They can manually choose which category they’d like that sender’s emails to go into.
This is also a great opportunity to educate your audience on how they can make sure your emails end up in their Primary tab—if they really want to read your emails on a regular basis.
They also have the ability to mark all emails as either read or unread, and archive or delete all your messages with a single action.
You’ll also see that branded mail icon at the top of Digest View—another reason why it’s a great opportunity to add your branded mail icon and show off your business’s logo.
Digest View shows a preview of the top 350 pixels of your most recent emails, but readers can tap “See More” to expand the full email, and they’re able to continuously scroll back and forth through multiple emails at once.
This is a big change in email design. There are a lot of ways you can optimize your email design for Digest View:
- Use colored backgrounds and clearly define edges to indicate where the preview starts and ends
- Avoid using identical design elements in multiple emails, which can create visual confusion
- Make designs cohesive, but not repetitive
- Focus on the top of the email to entice readers to click “Read More”
- Avoid using small text, especially smaller than Apple’s UI, to ensure clarity and readability
AI-Generated Message Summaries [07:07]
Last but certainly not least, we’re going to talk about AI-generated message summaries.
This only applies to devices with Apple Intelligence enabled—so the latest versions of Apple devices (iPhone 15 and above, I believe).
These summaries will replace your preview text. They are generated by AI and summarize what your email contains.
The summaries are created on-device, which means that while most people will see similar summaries, they won’t be exactly the same from one user to the next. It varies device by device.
This setting can be turned off, but only in the device settings, not within Apple Mail.
As far as we know, it’s impossible to influence the summary.
- Meta tags, content hierarchy, hidden text—none of these seem to affect the summary
- Apple’s AI does not show preview text verbatim, so even if you write clever or thematic preview text, users with Apple Intelligence enabled will never see that exact message
It’s kind of a bummer, especially if you like starting a joke in your subject line and continuing it in the preview text. But there are also opportunities that come with this feature.
Another important note: alt text is not taken into account.
So in addition to ignoring meta tags and hidden text, the AI will also not read alt text from images.
From an accessibility standpoint, it was already best practice to avoid placing critical information only in images. Now, it’s even more important. If you want to highlight something that’s embedded in an image, you must also include that information in the actual text of your email.
Final Takeaways
Here are the key takeaways now that we know what iOS 18.2 is doing:
- Preview text may no longer be relevant, so focus on your sender name and subject line—those are the areas where you still have control
- Category sorting may lead to an initial dip in unique views, but we expect that to improve as users get used to the tabs
- Get set up with Branded Mail on Apple Business Connect as soon as possible—it’s free and easy
- Optimize your email design for Digest View:
- Focus on the top section
- Avoid small text
- Use colored backgrounds to distinguish emails
- Don’t repeat the same layout in every send
- Don’t include important information solely in images—Apple’s AI won’t pick it up
- Keep your layout and copy clean and clear to give Apple’s AI the best chance at summarizing your message accurately
Want a deeper dive into what these changes mean for email strategy, design, and reporting? Check out our full breakdown here: Apple Mail: How iOS 18.2 Will Change the Face of Email
Need help navigating these changes? Contact us to talk with an email strategy expert from the emfluence team.
