How to Use the Mail App on iPhone

To use the Mail app on an iPhone, add your email account in Settings > Apps > Mail > Mail Accounts > Add Account, then open Mail. Tap a message to read it, tap the compose button to write a new one, and use the reply button in an open message to answer or forward it. Everything else in this guide builds on those three actions.

The steps below follow Apple’s current iPhone User Guide (iOS 27) and apply to Apple’s built-in Mail app. The same Settings path is used in iOS 18 and iOS 26. On iOS 17 and earlier, Mail sits directly in Settings, so the path is Settings > Mail > Accounts. If you read email in the separate Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo Mail app, those apps have their own settings and these steps do not apply.

What you need before you start

• Your email address and its password. The password belongs to your email provider, not to your iPhone.
• An internet connection over Wi-Fi or cellular data.
• For a less common provider, the incoming and outgoing mail server settings. Your provider can give you these.
• The Mail app itself. If it is missing from the Home Screen, swipe left to the App Library, type Mail in the search field, touch and hold the app, and tap Add to Home Screen.

Add an email account

When you open Mail for the first time, it asks you to set up an account. To add an account at any other time, use Settings. Apple documents this in Add an email account to your iPhone or iPad.

1. Open Settings and tap Apps.
2. Tap Mail, then tap Mail Accounts.
3. Tap Add Account and enter your email address. If a list of providers appears, choose yours.
4. Follow the prompts and enter your password. Tap Next and wait while Mail verifies the account, or tap Save if you see that instead.

Common providers such as iCloud, Google, Microsoft Exchange and Yahoo set up automatically from your address and password. For other providers, tap Add Other Account, then Mail Account, and enter your name, email address, password and a description. If Mail cannot find the settings, it asks you to choose IMAP or POP (two ways an app can collect mail from a server) and to enter the Incoming Mail Server and Outgoing Mail Server details. Ask your provider if you are not sure which to pick.

You can add more than one account. Mail then shows all of them in one app, and you choose which address to send from each time you write a message.

Read your email

1. Open Mail.
2. Tap a message in the list to open it.
3. Tap the back button in the upper-left corner to return to the list. Keep tapping it until you see Mailboxes to reach the full list of accounts and folders. From that screen you can also add an Attachments mailbox in iPhone Mail that gathers every email with a file attached.

Touch and hold a message in the list to preview it and see options for replying or moving it without opening it. By default each message shows two lines of preview text. To see more, go to Settings > Apps > Mail > Preview and choose up to five lines. To keep replies grouped with the original message, turn on Organize by Thread on the same Mail settings screen, where you can also put the most recent email at the top of a Mail conversation. Apple covers these options in Check your email in Mail on iPhone.

Categories in the inbox

In iOS 18.2 and later, Mail can sort incoming messages into four categories: Primary (personal and time-sensitive mail), Transactions (receipts and shipping notices), Updates (news and newsletters) and Promotions (offers and sales). Apple notes that categories are not available in every country or region. If a message seems to be missing, check the other categories, or swipe left on the category row at the top of the inbox to open All Mail.

To go back to one plain list, tap the More button at the top of the inbox and choose List View. Choose the categories option in the same menu to turn them back on. See Apple’s categories guide for moving a sender into a different category.

Write and send an email

1. In Mail, tap the compose button (a square with a pencil).
2. Tap the To field and type a name or address. Mail suggests people from your contacts as you type.
3. To copy other people, tap Cc/Bcc. Addresses in Cc are visible to everyone. Addresses in Bcc (blind copy) are hidden from the other recipients.
4. Tap Subject and type a short subject line.
5. Tap in the body of the message and type your email.
6. Tap the send button (an upward arrow). Sent messages are normally kept in the account’s Sent mailbox.

If you have several accounts, tap the Cc/Bcc, From line in the draft, tap From, and choose the address to send from. To format text, use the formatting button above the keyboard; our guide on how to bold text in iPhone emails walks through it. To attach something, tap in the message, then use the attachment buttons above the keyboard to choose Attach File, Photo Library, Take Photo or Video or Scan Document.

New messages end with a signature line. To edit it, see how to remove or replace “Sent from my iPhone”.

Schedule a message or save a draft

To send later, touch and hold the send button and choose a time, or tap Send Later for more options. To stop writing without losing your work, tap the close button at the top of the draft and tap Save Draft. Touch and hold the compose button later to pick a saved draft. Apple lists every composing option in Send email in Mail on iPhone.

Unsend a message

Right after you send, Undo Send appears at the top of the inbox. You have 10 seconds to tap it to pull the message back. For more time, go to Settings > Apps > Mail > Undo Send Delay and choose a longer delay, up to 30 seconds. Once the delay ends the message cannot be pulled back. Apple explains this on its Undo Send page.

Reply to or forward an email

1. Open the message.
2. Tap the reply button (a curved arrow).
3. Tap Reply to answer only the sender, Reply All to answer the sender and everyone else on the message, or Forward to send it to someone new.
4. If you forward a message that has attachments, choose Include or Don’t Include.
5. Type your response and tap the send button.

Check the recipient list before you use Reply All, because everyone on the original message receives your answer. More detail is in Apple’s Reply to and forward emails guide.

Organize, flag and search

A mailbox is Mail’s word for a folder. The Mailboxes screen lists shortcuts such as All Inboxes, followed by each account and its folders.

• Swipe actions: in a message list, drag a message slowly to the left to reveal a menu of actions, or swipe right for other actions. Change them in Settings > Apps > Mail > Swipe Options. Our guide to changing Mail swipe options and inbox settings on iPhone has the full steps.
• Flag: swipe left on a message and tap Flag. The message stays in the inbox and also appears in the Flagged mailbox. To show that mailbox, go to Mailboxes, tap Edit and select Flagged.
• Move: open a message, tap the folder button and choose a mailbox. To move several, tap Select in the list first.
• New mailbox: on the Mailboxes screen tap Edit, then New Mailbox. Some mailboxes cannot be changed.
• Search: tap the search field and type a name, subject or word. Above the results, choose whether to search all mailboxes or only the current one.
• Block a sender: open a message, tap the sender’s address, tap View Contact Card, then Block this Contact. Our iPhone Mail blocking guide explains how to reverse it.

If an account folder is not showing, see how to show folders in iPhone Mail. Apple’s references are Organize email in mailboxes and Flag or block emails.

Delete, archive and recover email

Before you delete in bulk, note one thing about categories: Apple warns that when you select a Transactions, Updates or Promotions message in a list, you are selecting all the messages in that category from that sender. Open the sender’s messages and swipe on a single one if you only want to remove that one.

• Delete one: open the message and tap the trash button.
• Delete several: in a message list tap Select, tap the messages, then tap the trash button at the bottom.
• Recover: go to Mailboxes, tap Trash, open the message, tap the folder button and choose another mailbox such as Inbox.
• Archive instead: in Settings > Apps > Mail > Mail Accounts, tap the account, then Account Settings and Advanced (for iCloud, tap iCloud and Mailbox Behaviors). Under Move Discarded Messages Into, select Archive Mailbox.

Deleted mail does not stay in Trash forever. The Remove setting on the same Advanced screen controls how long, and Apple notes that some services override it; iCloud, for example, does not keep deleted messages longer than 30 days. Full steps are in Delete and recover emails. If the trash button has turned into an archive box, or deleted mail keeps coming back, see iPhone Mail not deleting emails.

Mail settings worth knowing

All of these are in Settings > Apps > Mail, as described in Apple’s Change your Mail settings page.

Setting	What it does
Mail Accounts	Add, turn off or remove email accounts.
Fetch New Data	Sets how often Mail checks accounts that do not support Push.
Notifications	Turns alerts, sounds and badges on or off, per account under Customize Notifications.
Default Mail App	Chooses which email app opens for new messages started outside an email app.
Swipe Options	Chooses the actions shown when you swipe a message.
Ask Before Deleting	Shows a confirmation before a message is deleted.
Signature	Edits the text added to the end of new messages. Text only.
Undo Send Delay	Sets how long you have to unsend a message, up to 30 seconds.

Push means the mail server sends new messages to the iPhone as they arrive. Fetch means the iPhone checks on a schedule. Under Fetch, the default choice is Automatically, which Apple says downloads new data when the iPhone is charging and connected to Wi-Fi. Pick a timed schedule if you want mail checked more often. Our guide on how to turn off Push email and choose a Fetch schedule has the account-by-account steps. The Mail settings also include a Privacy Protection menu, which is where you can stop Mail from loading email pictures on the iPhone.

Confirm it works, or undo it

To check a new account, open Mail, write a message to your own address and send it. It should arrive in the inbox of that account shortly afterward. If it does not, work through the troubleshooting list below.

To pause an account without removing it, go to Settings > Apps > Mail > Mail Accounts, tap the account and turn off Mail (for iCloud, turn off Use on this iPhone). Turn it back on at any time.

To remove an account, tap it in Mail Accounts and tap Delete Account or Sign Out. This removes the account and its mail from the iPhone and from other apps on the iPhone that use it. It does not cancel the email account, and Apple notes you can add it back later. See Add and remove email accounts.

Troubleshooting

• You cannot find Apps or Mail Accounts in Settings. The iPhone is probably on iOS 17 or earlier. Look for Settings > Mail > Accounts instead.
• A message will not send. In Mailboxes, look for an Outbox. If it is there, open the message, check the recipient’s address and tap Send. Apple’s If you can’t send email on your iPhone or iPad article lists the next checks, and we cover the error “The connection to the outgoing server failed” separately.
• Mail keeps asking for a password. If you changed the password with your provider, the iPhone still has the old one. See how to update your email password on iPhone.
• New mail arrives only when you open the app. Check Fetch New Data and choose a timed schedule.
• No alerts for new mail. Go to Settings > Apps > Mail > Notifications, make sure Allow Notifications is on, then tap Customize Notifications and check the account. Apple’s Set email notifications page has the details.
• The unread badge looks too low. With categories on, the badge counts unread Primary messages. To count everything, go to Settings > Notifications > Mail > Customize Notifications and turn on All Unread Messages.
• Setup fails for a work or school address. These accounts are often managed by the organization. Ask its IT team for the correct settings rather than guessing.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo in the iPhone Mail app?

Yes. Apple lists iCloud, Google, Microsoft Exchange and Yahoo among the providers that Mail can set up automatically from your email address and password. Add the account in Settings > Apps > Mail > Mail Accounts > Add Account. Other providers can be added with Add Other Account and their server settings.

Does deleting an account from the iPhone delete my email?

It removes the account and its messages from the iPhone only. Apple states that this does not cancel the email account. To close an account completely, you have to go to the email provider. One caution: an account set up as POP may keep its mail on the device rather than on the server, so check with your provider before removing a POP account.

How many email accounts can I add?

Apple’s guide says you can add one or more accounts and does not state a maximum. With several accounts added, All Inboxes shows incoming mail from every account in one list, and tapping a mailbox under a single account shows only that account’s mail.

How do I change the default email app?

Go to Settings > Apps > Mail > Default Mail App and choose an app. Apple describes this setting as the app used for new emails you start outside a specific email app, such as one created with Siri. Only email apps installed on the iPhone can appear as choices.

Why do some features mention Apple Intelligence?

Email summaries, Smart Reply and priority messages are Apple Intelligence features. Apple says they need an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 16 or later, and they are not available in every language or region. Everything else in this guide works without them.

Next step

Add your account, send yourself a test message, then open Settings > Apps > Mail and set Notifications and Swipe Options the way you like. Those two choices shape most of your day-to-day use of Mail.