The announcement of iOS 18 marks a turning point for email marketing professionals. Starting September 2024, Apple revealed a series of major updates to its Apple Mail app that are set to launch in 2025—changes that could radically reshape how your emails are displayed, organized, or read. These updates will have a direct impact on deliverability, visibility, and engagement.
At Mindbaz, our deliverability experts have analyzed the key changes announced, their real impact on your campaigns, and most importantly, how to adapt and keep getting results. Here’s what you need to know to prepare your next campaigns.
In short, here are the 4 main updates that affect email:
The introduction of tabs in Apple Mail, Gmail-style
Grouping messages by sender, with previews and a dedicated view
The arrival of Apple Intelligence: AI summaries, pre-headers, and prioritization
The integration of Branded Mail with logos in the inbox
Before going into details, please feel free to watch the announcement video here.
1. Apple adds tabs to Apple Mail
Like Gmail, Apple will propose a categorization of emails according to several criteria.
There will be four tabs:
Primary: personal or important messages
Transactions: invoices, receipts, confirmations
Updates: newsletters, social alerts
Promotions: purely commercial emails
Good to know:
Unlike Gmail, newsletters will appear in the “Updates” tab, not “Promotions.” That’s good news for content publishers—your newsletters may retain good visibility… provided they’re relevant and follow best practices.
Important: Users can always reclassify or disable these tabs, which reduces the impact of this feature… as long as your emails remain relevant.
2. Branded Mail: Your Emails Displayed with Logos and Grouped by Sender
Two major evolutions will change how your emails appear:
Digest View
Apple introduces a new grouped view by sender called Digest View. In practical terms, emails from the same brand will be grouped in one place.
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Branded Mail
At the same time, brands with a paid Apple developer account will be able to display their logo in the inbox via the Branded Mail feature. A potential boost for brand recognition and open rates.
Mindbaz Tip: Get ahead of this by enabling BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) in your email setups today.
3. Apple Introduces Apple Intelligence and Automatically Generated Pre-headers
Apple Intelligence: the new AI
With Apple Intelligence, AI is being integrated into inbox management. The impacts are numerous:
- Automatic summaries of emails shown in the pre-header
- Suggested smart replies
- Priority messages highlighted at the top of the inbox based on AI-estimated relevance
Automatically Generated Pre-headers in the Inbox
Apple will now display an AI-generated preview of email content in the pre-header (the line right below the subject).
This means your emails must grab attention from the subject line and first lines of content. More than ever, pre-headers must be optimized—even though Apple is generating one for you.
Check out our blog post on 12 ways to craft subject lines that convert.
Priority Emails Defined
Another new feature: emails identified as important by AI will be pinned at the top of the inbox, along with a summary. This could become a new perceived deliverability factor.
What this means for you:
- Better segmentation
- More targeted sends
- More useful, personalized content
Enhanced Privacy and AI Without Data Collection
True to its values, Apple states that its AI operates locally without collecting personal data. Marketers will need to:
Respect user consent
Be transparent about data usage
Focus on content relevance over intrusive targeting
This approach reinforces a key trend: placing user experience at the center of your email strategies.
The Mindbaz Team Will Keep You Updated
The Mindbaz team will closely monitor the upcoming developer beta tests for the Apple iOS 18 update and share practical recommendations to help you stay effective in the Apple ecosystem.
AI Comes to Mindbaz
At Mindbaz, we’re also preparing for the arrival of AI in our tools. Our goal: help you boost deliverability and campaign performance by adapting to these new display and inbox categorization rules.
The mass email routing tool has developed a feature that lets you generate personalized subject lines while respecting deliverability rules.
Stay tuned—our upcoming features will make your life easier via our blog articles.
Author: Agathe Allard, email deliverability manager at Mindbaz
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