Image of the Promotions Tab in iOS 18.

Apple’s iOS 18 Mail App: What Marketers Need to Know About the New Tabs

10 June 2024

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is always a highly anticipated event, with developers, tech enthusiasts, and industry insiders eagerly awaiting announcements about the company’s latest innovations. One significant highlight for marketers is that changes are coming to the Mail app in iOS 18 (expected to drop this fall).

A Closer Look at the New Mail App in iOS 18

The most notable update to the Mail app in iOS 18 is a feature called “on-device categorization.” Gmail’s tabbed inbox categorizes incoming emails into selectable categories (Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums). This system helps users organize their inboxes by automatically sorting emails into categories based on content and sender. On-device categorization looks a whole lot like Gmail’s inbox.

I’ve got you covered if you haven’t seen the demonstration yet. Here’s the video cued up to the demo:

My impressions

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At first glance, Apple’s new Mail app categorizations appear heavily inspired by Gmail’s inbox organization. This move isn’t entirely surprising, given that Gmail’s tabbed interface has been well-received by users for its ability to reduce inbox clutter and help users manage their emails more efficiently. Apple is explicitly marketing this as a way for users to “stay in control and manage” their inboxes.

Apple must felt that they were behind Gmail in user experience, so this is how they are at least starting to catch up. Their decision to adopt a similar approach likely stems from a desire to enhance that user experience by providing a more organized and less overwhelming inbox. By categorizing emails into different tabs, users will be able to more quickly find what they are looking for, reducing the time spent sorting through a single, cluttered inbox. This is especially important for people on mobile devices, who are more likely looking to handle things quickly than people on a desktop.

What This Means for Marketers

Don’t panic

Since Gmail introduced its tabbed inbox, marketers have been on a quest to ensure their emails land in the Primary tab rather than the Promotions tab. While it is probably true that engagement rates will drop for people using iOS, Return Path (now Validity) found in 2013 that messages in Gmail’s promotions tab did not suffer significantly lower open rates but were less likely to be reported as spam. Return Path, ​The Tabbed Inbox​, Return Path (2013), https://web.archive.org/web/20240428091443/https://returnpath.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Return_Path_-_The_Tabbed_Inbox.pdf (last visited Jun 10, 2024). I expect the same thing to hold here as well.

There may be inconsistencies

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Since this is an on-device categorization, the categorization process happens individually on each device, which could lead to inconsistencies. For example, a “Promotions” email on an iPhone might be categorized differently on an iPad. Marketers should be prepared for these variations and monitor how their emails are sorted across different devices.

Your mail is still in the inbox

It’s important to emphasize that the Promotions tab is still part of the user’s inbox. Emails categorized as Promotions are not being relegated to a spam folder but are instead organized to help users manage their emails more efficiently. This categorization should be viewed as an organizational tool on that specific device rather than a barrier.

It’s only on iOS

Finally, this categorization feature is exclusive to iOS devices. When users check their email on a desktop — even a MacOS device such as a Macbook — the categorization will not be present. This serves to emphasize that the message always remains in the recipient’s inbox. While it makes sense that Apple would strive for parity at some point in the future, there was no indication today that Apple is considering it any time soon.

Mickey Chandler
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