Email on your iPhone shouldn’t be a chore, and with the right app, it doesn’t have to be. Here are five solid starting points for anyone looking to manage their inbox on the go.
1 Apple Mail: For the best iCloud Mail experience
Apple Mail, or just “Mail” as it is known, is the default email application included with your iPhone. It’s free and easy to use, you can start by adding the relevant email accounts under Settings > Mail > Accounts. Mail supports most email services including iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and IMAP or POP3.
The service works particularly well with iCloud email accounts and other Apple-specific features. You can use Mail Drop to send attachments up to 5GB for free, and there’s built-in integration with Apple’s Hide My Email alias service, which iCloud+ subscribers can use to create temporary addresses to limit spam and appear anonymous.
If you’ve written off the app in the past, it might be time to give Apple Mail another chance. Mail now has convenient scheduling, snoozing, and undo functions, and a feature that redisplays sent emails so you can follow up on them if you haven’t received a reply.
Apple also sticks to privacy, with the “Protect Mail Activity” feature enabled by default. This uploads content remotely in an attempt to defeat tracking pixels and anonymize your inbox. The app’s interface is functional and clean, includes support for a dark mode that mirrors your system settings, and contains useful customizations including transition settings.
2 Gmail: For Google advanced users
Gmail for iPhone is the obvious choice for Gmail users and has one big advantage over other apps that only support Google’s email service. Only the Gmail app gets instant push notifications when you receive a new message, so if timely notifications are most important to you as a Gmail user, look no further.
There’s also strong support for much of Gmail’s feature set. This includes tags, Priority Mail, and sorting categories such as “Social” and “Promotions” for easy filtering. You can mute threads, mark messages as important, and send an unsubscribe request when lists are discovered.
One particularly thoughtful feature is the ability to limit data usage and automatically download attachments, which is great if you’re on a limited data budget. You can also customize swiping, delay messages and set “AutoReply” directly within the app. Unfortunately, there is no support for creating filter rules like in the desktop version of Gmail, nor are there themes and plugins.
Gmail also integrates Google Meet into a separate tab, making it easy to start a meeting with your contacts or generate a connection. You can also join other meetings using the code. Google Meet also works with the iPhone’s Picture-in-Picture mode, which means you can leave the app without ending the call and still see the participants in a small, retractable window.
Microsoft Outlook for iPhone is the Outlook you know and love, and it’s completely free to use. The app currently works with Microsoft accounts (including Exchange, Hotmail, and MSN), Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and iCloud Mail. If you’re used to Outlook on Windows, macOS, or the web, you’ll likely appreciate the same access to email and schedule management on your iPhone.
Perhaps the standout feature is Microsoft’s “Focused Inbox,” which works with select accounts, including Gmail and Outlook addresses. Mail is divided between “Focused” and “Other” so you can get to the messages Outlook considers most important first (you can also train the feature to better identify important messages).
There is also support for Outlook “add-ons” to connect additional services, especially those intended for business users. Further expansion is possible with file storage services such as Dropbox, Box and Google Drive. Another signature Outlook feature, “Play My Emails” lets you listen to your inbox, although the feature is currently limited to Microsoft accounts.
Since this is Outlook, you’ll find the calendar on a separate tab. Using this interface, you can create events, add people and show your availability. Another tab is dedicated to your “Feed”, which populates with recent contacts, files you’ve received, and email threads you’re active in.
The app is quite customizable, allowing you to change what swipes do, protect your accounts with Face ID, and change the look of the user interface with color themes and images.
4 Proton Mail: For the best privacy and security
Proton Mail is an app designed specifically for use with the Proton Mail email service, so it won’t work with Gmail, iCloud, or anything else. Proton Mail is a secure email service and meets most of the basic criteria you would expect from a self-identified messaging provider.
Email data is encrypted in such a way that even Proton Mail cannot access its contents. The servers are located within Switzerland, which is outside the jurisdiction of the US and the EU and does not engage in information sharing practices. ProtonMail is built on an open source foundation and is regularly audited by independent companies to maintain integrity.
The app itself is free, as are basic accounts (though you could upgrade for more storage and features). The real focus here is on privacy, with Proton Mail promising to try to block trackers, use end-to-end encryption between senders, and not serve ads based on your use of the service.
Proton Mail also includes some neat extras that you’d expect from some of the more common mail apps. One-click unsubscribe can remove you from mailing lists, just like Gmail. You can snooze messages, unsend them, and schedule messages to go out later. These aren’t the primary reasons most users choose Proton Mail, but they can help you feel like you’re not missing out.
5 Twobird: Turn your Inbox into a to-do list
Twobird is an email client for Gmail and Microsoft accounts that turns your inbox into a to-do list. The app filters your mailbox by “Inbox” and “Low Priority” in an attempt to show the most important messages. Unread messages are actually outstanding to-dos and are removed from your inbox by default after you’ve read them (whether you read them or not).
You can customize this behavior in the app, but ultimately that’s what Twobird is all about: turning your inbox into a to-do list, hiding things you’ve seen, and making sure you don’t miss things you’ve already seen read. This may seem like a somewhat irregular way to use email, but different moves for different people.
In addition to your “to-do list,” the app also includes notes that appear next to your pending items and a calendar so you can see the items you’ve sorted for a later date. There is a fully customizable reminder system that allows you to snooze items for a later time to appear at a more convenient time.
It’s not just about reading email and planning your week, but you can send messages, create events in Calendar and access all your usual mailboxes (plus there’s a decent search feature). On top of that is a useful “Unsubscribe” feature that scans your inbox for mailing lists that you can opt out of with a tap.
Twobird is free to use. The developers plan to introduce premium plans in the future, but have stated that they aim to keep the basic functionality free.
These are our favorite iPhone email apps, all of which are free or at least offer a generous free plan. Another area where the right app can make a big difference is note-taking, and we’re confident you can’t get much better than Apple Notes on iPhone. However, there are some good alternative iPhone note-taking apps that you might want to explore as well.