It’s iOS update season again, and email marketers need to get ready. The good news is that while iOS 18 is expected to be released in mid to late September, similar to previous years, the changes affecting Apple Mail aren’t available in beta yet. This likely means they won’t be part of the initial update.
(Don’t take my word for it. Apple’s preview mentioned that the changes are “coming later this year,” which, to me, makes it more likely they’ll be released separately and at a later date.)
Why is that good news? Because the changes it’s about to wreak on Apple Mail inboxes (which, according to a recent Litmus study, account for nearly half of email client volume worldwide) are significant. It will take time for email marketers to fully understand how to prepare.
How iOS 18 will change Apple Mail
Let’s ease into the changes with the smaller of the two categories of change: AI. If you were wondering when AI would be more prominent in Apple Mail (which includes a range of major email domains, including Gmail and Yahoo), you can stop wondering. iOS 18 will bring a few new AI-generated features, including automatic reply suggestions and email summaries.
The one area of concern to monitor is whether these automatic replies suggest language asking to be unsubscribed. A more immediate concern is that AI-produced email summaries will replace preheaders, which marketers use to provide clarity on the message and entice subscribers to open.
This might not be a big deal if your emails already follow best practices (which I’ll get to in a minute), but if they don’t, AI might not properly read your email content, which could produce suboptimal summaries.
The most disruptive piece of the iOS 18 email updates is the introduction of tabs. Desktop email users are already familiar with them (which means we can anticipate their impact on mobile). Instead of including all emails in one view, Apple Mail will categorize emails into:
- Primary.
- Transactions.
- Updates.
- Promotions.
We don’t have access to this in beta yet, and the fact iOS 15 made open rates hard to measure means we won’t know the impact of this on open rates. However, I can say with confidence this will lead to a clear decrease in both click rates (which we’ll be able to measure) and open rates.
More emails appearing in the non-Primary tab means users will be less likely to see and engage with them. Email marketers should have a plan to keep as much of their content as possible in the Primary tab.
Dig deeper: 4 inbox-altering changes to watch for
Recommended steps to prepare for iOS 18
Let’s return to the AI-generated changes. Email summaries will pull from what AI can consume, so it’s critical to ensure your email content is formatted accordingly. So you need to prioritize the following:
- Make sure image-based emails are updated to dynamic live text (you should do this anyway, iOS or not).
- Add extra scrutiny to the coding on the main content blocks you want to influence the email summary. Coding errors could result in wonky AI results.
Essentially, make sure anything you would have included in the pre-header is spic and span for AI consumption.
Now, for tabs specifically, how do you give your emails the best chance to stay in the Primary view? Top-level, the higher your engagement, the better your odds of staying front and center.
The best path to strong engagement is strategic segmentation: high engagers, medium engagers, an at-risk segment and non-engagers. Each segment should have different messaging and frequency.
The other important thing is ensuring the emails are highly engaging. Relevant non-promotional messaging is a great lever that aligns well with iOS’s focus on building user trust and providing value. If you needed a reason to pivot from more promotional emails, this should be it.
We’ll know more once iOS 18 rolls out in beta, and have more preparation steps to share as we learn. For now, implement the above recommendations and stay in close contact with trusted resources who can advise you on the best way forward.
Dig deeper: Why you should track your email’s long tail to measure success (plus a case study)
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