iOS 16 Mail — the five most significant changes to your iPhone

The iOS 16 Mail additions are led by improved search and productivity tools.

Mail isn't the most visually appealing app on Apple's phones, but it's one that many iPhone users use to stay in touch with friends, colleagues, and clients. And iOS 16, Apple's upcoming software release, includes a number of enhancements and new features aimed at making it easier to find messages and be more efficient when sending email.

While the new features in the mail app aren't the most revolutionary additions to iOS 16, they are certainly welcome. (And many of them will look familiar if you use Google's Gmail as your email client.)

Here's a look at what Apple has announced for iOS 16 Mail, as well as my initial impressions of the features I've been able to use so far.

Mail search improvements in iOS 16

The changes Apple intends to make to Mail's search functionality will most likely be the most significant. That's good news, because the current iteration of search in iOS 15's Mail app is hit or miss. I especially dislike scrolling through long lists of search results in search of a specific email.

Apple claims that searches in iOS 16 Mail will now return results based not only on the content of your search but also on your own behaviour. Your previous search history is likely to influence future search results, especially if you spend a lot of time searching for the same type of information in your emails.

That sounds like the kind of feature that develops over time, and I haven't seen many examples of it in my own iOS 16 beta testing. I've noticed that the list of search results is now more streamlined than it was previously. Instead of the long list of people and email subject lines related to my search query that iOS 16 Mail produced, iOS 16 Mail produces a more compact list with people, subject lines, and attachments appearing under a Suggestions heading.

I'm not seeing the more detailed search results that Apple displays on its iOS 16 preview page, where search results in Mail are also broken down to include relevant documents and links. It's possible that the search feature isn't fully formed in the current beta version, or that search results will add these capabilities in the future. Apple also claims that its onboard search engine is becoming smarter, recognising typos in search terms and searching for what you meant to type instead. This feature has yet to be tested on my test phone, but it should save some time when correcting search queries.

It's also worth noting that Apple promises improved search capabilities for the version of Mail that ships with macOS Ventura, the Mac software update that arrives at the same time as iOS 16 in the fall.

Mail scheduled send in iOS 16

Gmail users will be familiar with this, but iOS 16 Mail adds the ability to schedule emails — and the feature is already available in the iOS 16 beta.
Email scheduling is a great productivity boost, especially if you want your message to arrive in someone's inbox at a specific time. It relieves you of the burden of having to manually press the send button if you're going to be stuck — or nowhere near your phone — at the specified time.

Email scheduling is also made much easier in iOS 16. Simply press and hold the Send button to bring up a pop-up menu. You'll be given the option to send the message now or later in the day. If you want to send your message at a specific time, tap Send Later, and you'll see a calendar view where you can set the date and time.

Unsending emails in iOS 16 Mail

The ability to unsend emails is one of the most significant new features in Mail with iOS 16. The process is similar to the new unsend texts feature in iOS 16 Messages, though the window to reconsider what you did in Mail is much smaller.

When I first tested iOS 16 Mail, I had 10 seconds to unsend an email, which isn't much time when compared to the unsend text feature. However, as of the fourth developer beta for iOS 16, you can go into Mail's settings and choose between 10, 20, and 30 second unsend windows; you can also disable the feature entirely.

When you tap Send in Mail, the unsend command appears at the bottom of the screen.

Mail reminders and follow-ups in iOS 16

Another pair of iOS 16 productivity-focused additions Mail aims to prevent important emails from getting lost in the shuffle. A Remind Me feature allows you to choose a message you've already read to resurface at a specific time so you can return to it. A follow-up feature detects messages you've sent with deadlines and other calls to action and prompts you to send a follow-up email if you haven't received a response.

The simpler addition is Remind Me, which is already visible in the iOS 16 beta. Simply swipe right on the message in question — next to the Unread button, you can now tap a Later button. You can have Mail resurface the message in an hour, later that night, the next day, or at a time and date that you specify on the subsequent pop-up menu. So far, I've found Remind Me to be especially useful for reminding me of appointments and interviews that I've scheduled via Mail a few days in advance so that I can be prepared.

I haven't used the follow-up feature yet, but I suspect that will change as I use iOS 16 Mail more. Requests to send additional data or specific deadlines on tasks are supposed to trigger the follow-up prompts in Mail, but we'll see how that works as the iOS 16 beta process continues. (Because the feature also requires US English, it won't be available to all iOS 16 users.) Personally, as someone whose inbox is inundated with unsolicited and largely irrelevant emails, I wish Apple had left this iOS 16 feature on the cutting room floor, though you can apparently disable it if you prefer.

Improved intelligence in iOS 16 Mail

A slew of iOS 16 Mail enhancements can be categorised as "Mail is getting much smarter." This includes the same dictation enhancement introduced by Apple in the iOS 16 Messages app, where you can now compose messages with your voice and your iPhone is intelligent enough to insert punctuation and even emojis.

Another example of enhanced intelligence in iOS 16 Mail is the app's ability to detect when you've forgotten to attach something mentioned in the body of your email and will prompt you to do so if you hit the Send button. The same feature will be available for message recipients mentioned in the email but not in the To: field. Again, I've yet to see this feature appear when using iOS 16 Mail on my phone, so I'm not sure if Apple has yet to enable it or if it's a capability that appears as you use Mail more.

Other features of iOS 16 Mail

Finally, iOS 16 Mail allows you to insert rich links into your emails, giving your recipients a viewable preview of a website rather than a text link. It's as simple as tapping the URL until a drop-down arrow appears. By clicking the arrow, you can convert your URL into a rich link. (The same procedure can be used to convert it back.)

Outlook Mail for iOS 16

None of the aforementioned changes are likely to top anyone's list of the top iOS 16 features, especially when you can customise the lock screen and copy text from videos. However, they should make it much easier to compose and find emails than the current version of Apple's built-in app. And if you use your iPhone to get things done, this is a good thing.