How to view other messages while composing a new one in ios mail

By The App Factor • 12:30 pm, March 28, 2016

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If you use the default iOS Mail app on a regular basis, you definitely need to learn these tips and tricks.
Photo: Ally Kazmucha/The App Factor

No matter how many email apps I try, I just keep coming back to the stock iOS Mail app. While some of the things I’ve come to love about the iPhone’s built-in Mail app are obvious, some are not — such as shortcuts or gestures that make using it even more intuitive. Here are a few favorite iOS Mail tips I think everyone should know.

1. Swipe down to save drafts in iOS Mail

In my previous article on Mail.app, I mentioned that I love the fact that I can swipe down to get back to my inbox and Mail automatically saves my draft for when I want to access it again.

I received a few emails from readers and even comments on Twitter and Facebook about how shocked people were that they could do this. It never occurred to me how many people didn’t even know this feature existed.

All you have to do to use this feature is start typing an email. Swipe down from the top header of the email and the draft will be saved under the bottom navigation. When you’re ready to access it again, just tap in the bottom.

If you have more than one draft, you’ll be shown all of them in a stack, similarly to how Safari shows multiple open browser tabs. Just tap on any draft to continue working on it. If you want to discard a draft, just swipe it away the exact way you’d swipe away a Safari tab.

2. Bring a draft back from the dead in iOS Mail

I mentioned in the first tip that you can swipe away drafts just as you can Safari tabs. But what if you accidentally swipe away a draft you didn’t mean to, or one goes missing?

I stumbled upon this trick by accident, but I’m glad I did. Just hold down on the Compose button and a few of your recent draft emails should be presented to you.

This trick doesn’t work for all draft emails, but it seems to work for the most recent ones. I’m not sure how the Mail app decides when to trash drafts and when to keep them, but it always seems to show two or three recent drafts.

It isn’t a trick I use very often but it’s saved me a few times, so it’s worth mentioning.

3. Delete or archive messages in iOS Mail

When you’re viewing a single message, you have an option in the bottom navigation to either archive or delete the message you’re viewing. This option is dictated by what you have your mailbox set to in Settings.

However, if you hold down on this icon, you’ll get a popup menu. In this menu you can choose to archive or delete the message, regardless of settings. I use this frequently instead of having to back out of a message to swipe and access the other option.

4. Archive and delete messages with iOS Mail swipe gestures

Speaking of swipe gestures for archiving and deleting, there’s a small trick you can perform in Mail’s settings in order archive or delete messages from the main inbox view. I love having this option for quick email triage, since it allows me to quickly swipe through my inbox much more quickly than selecting groups of messages.

Basically, you’ll need to change a few settings in the Settings app, but once you’re done, you’ll be able to swipe left for Archive and right for Delete. Here is everything you need to know:

• How to set up archive and trash simultaneously in Mail.app

5. Quick access to any folder with iOS Mail

I don’t remember exactly when the inbox list view added the option to customize folders, but I’ve been using it since I discovered it. All you have to do is tap Edit at the top of the inbox view and you’ll instantly get options to add all kinds of useful thread views to this list.

While you can use this to add loads of useful functionality, such as easy access to threads with notifications or flagged messages, you can also use it to access your custom folders and labels more quickly.

For example, I access my Developers folder in my App Factor email account more than any other folder. With Mail.app, I can add it to my main folder list so I can quickly jump into it without having to tap into my App Factor box, find it in a list, and tap into it from there. It doesn’t seem like it would save that much time, but if you have nested folders, it can be a lifesaver.

6. iOS Mail’s auto-detection magic

iOS 8 added all kinds of nifty improvements for Mail.app. One of my favorites was auto-detection, and I still use it almost every single day. Using this feature should be on everybody’s list of essential iOS Mail tips.

If you’ve ever seen a small banner at the top of a mail message, this is auto-detection at work. It typically picks up appointments that may be contained in a message, and that’s my most frequent use for it.

Mail’s auto-detection also functions as an easier way to add contacts to your address book. It can detect when someone changes their contact information as well. In only a few taps, you can accept those changes without having to manually enter anything.

7. Special alerts for VIP contacts in iOS Mail

I like to keep my notifications as specific and obvious as possible, and this includes email. With the VIP feature in Mail.app, I know whether an email is important without even pulling my iPhone out of my pocket.

I customize the tone, as well as the vibration pattern, for people I’ve designated as VIPs. This way, even when my iPhone is on silent, I still don’t miss important email messages that may need my attention.

I know some third-party email apps have ways to assign people as VIPs but they’ve never worked as well for me as Mail.app’s simple and easy-to-use implementation.

This post was syndicated via The App Factor.

Texting can be difficult sometimes. When you’re browsing the web or playing a game on your iPhone and need to respond to text message real quick, you have to exit your current app to do so. Not exactly efficient, especially if a quick “K” is all you need to say.

However, if you jailbreak your iPhone, there are more texting options available to you besides Apple’s stock Messages app. In this softModder guide, I’ll be showing you a great tweak that’ll make composing and replying to text messages quicker than Lindsay Lohan’s time in rehab.

We’ll be using a great new app called Couria, which adds a feature to your Messages app—without actually replacing it. Head over to Cydia and install the free Couria tweak.

Quick Replying to Texts from Within Your Current App

It’s pretty intuitive, so not much to say here. Whenever you receive a new text or iMessage, simply tap on your banner alert and the Couria messaging feature will pop up where you can quickly type in your reply. After hitting Send, Couria will disappear and you can continue doing whatever it is you were doing.

Quick Replying to Texts from the Lock Screen

If your phone is locked, it’s still really easy to reply to a new messages, and you don’t even have to unlock your device. When you receive a new message, just swipe the notification on the lock screen to the right to access Couria, then type your reply, send, and resume the locked state.

If security is vital, then simply head into the Couria preferences within your Settings app and tap on Messages. Here, you can set a unique passcode when the device is locked, or even unlocked, if you’re that paranoid (though it kind of defeats the purpose of quick replies).

With the Require When Locked option enabled, whenever you swipe a new message notification right on your lock screen, you’ll have to enter the passcode to proceed with your reply.

Composing New Texts from Anywhere on Your iPhone

This is where things can get fun, but a little tricky. By default, Couria only lets you “reply” to incoming SMS and iMessages, but it’s still possible to use it for composing new messages, too.

To do so, you’ll also need to install the Activator app, which lets you add new gestures to your iOS device. In this case, we’ll be using it to open Couria by triple-pressing the Home button.

All you do is assign a new gesture to the Couria tweak with Activator to quickly bring it up from anywhere on your device. Open up Activator from within your Settings, and tap on Anywhere. Under the Home Button section, tap on Triple Press and set Couria as your action.

When you use your new gesture, the most recent conversations will be displayed, making it easier to compose, or you can just start typing the name of the contact you want to chat with.

You Can Even View & Send Photo Messages Easily

Many of us send and receive MMS on a daily basis, and Couria can handle that, too. Images will only be displayed once tapped and can quickly be closed by tapping on the displayed image. Sending a photo from within Couria works the same as it does regularly—just tap on the camera icon.

Couria is a great enhancement for messaging on your iPhone—it’ll change the way you interact with your messages, and definitely for the better.

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Original Title: How do I change the view for composing messages? The new way ——!

Why Microsoft continually feels the need to change everything is ludicrous. If its not broken – DON’T FIX IT!

How can I change the view when I compose a new message?

Every email platform in existence has the Recipients fields up top, subject below that and message below that,

Now Microsoft decides to split panes and make composing a message look and feel RIDICULOUS!

Whenever they make these radical changes that they think are so bold, they should always give users the options to change but they never do.

Help me change this before I am forced to go to gmail or yahoo.

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It is a pleasure to help you with your issue in saving your emails to your computer. Let’s find out what are the possible options that we can do to resolve your issue.

Technically, you cannot move files out of Outlook.com to a computer directly. This option is currently unavailable.

The workaround that I can think of is you need to set up your account in an email client such as Windows Live Mail so that you have a copy of Outlook.com emails on your computer.

If you don’t have Windows Live Mail in your computer, you need to download Windows Essentials and install it in your computer. To download Windows Essentials, please refer to this link.

Here’s the link to view the Windows Essentials system requirements.

After installation, you need to set up your Hotmail account in Windows Live Mail. Please refer to the article below for detailed instructions:

Afterwards, you can now import and export emails using Windows Live Mail. Please refer to the link below for detailed instructions.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Best regards,
Mark M.
Forum Moderator

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Sorry for the delayed response. We appreciate your time for posting your concern here in Microsoft Community Answers forum. We can’t stress out how highly we value your insight regarding the looks of our product. We know that you had been using Hotmail that makes you familiar with its features and sudden changes on its interface may bring discomfort on your end.

With the current design of Outlook.com, the option to change the view of composing email isn’t applicable. I will forward the suggestion over to our product team as consideration for a future release . If you want to send a suggestions straight to our product team, kindly send us feedback on this link .

Should you have other questions or any other concerns, please reply to this thread and we will be happy to further assist you.

With smart suggestions, you can compose your emails faster than ever. Here’s how to use Text Predictions in Outlook on Windows and the web.

If you find yourself typing the same phrases or sentences in your emails repeatedly, Outlook can make composing a message faster and easier with a new feature called Text Predictions. With Text Predictions, Outlook provides you with suggestions as you type.

You can accept a suggestion with a simple click or ignore it and keep typing the words you want. According to the schedule at Microsoft, as of May 20, 2021, Text Predictions has been launched on Outlook for Android and Outlook Online, and it’s currently being rolled out to Microsoft to Outlook for Windows and Outlook for iOS. If you follow the steps below and don’t see the feature, make sure you’re running the latest client. If that doesn’t fix it, you might need to wait until Microsoft adds the feature to your account.

Enable Text Predictions in Outlook

Although Text Predictions is available for both Word and Outlook on several platforms, below is how to enable it on Outlook for Windows and Outlook online.

Outlook Windows Desktop

After updating Office on your computer, the Text Predictions feature may be turned on by default. But here’s how to check.

1. Click File >Options.
2. On the left, pick Mail.
3. On the right, near the top under Compose Messages, check the box for Show text predictions while typing.
4. Click OK and then check out the feature by composing an email!

Outlook on the Web

You can turn Text Predictions on or off with a toggle in Outlook online. So log into your account and follow these steps.

1. Click Settings (gear icon) on the top right.
2. At the bottom of the sidebar that appears, click View all Outlook settings.
3. On the far left, pick Mail, and to the right, pick Compose and reply.
4. Scroll down the Compose and Reply settings to Text Predictions. To use the feature, check the box for Suggest words or phrases as I type.
5. Hit the X on the top right to close the settings, and then give Text Predictions a try!

Use Text Predictions in Outlook

The Text Predictions feature works the same in the desktop app and on the web. If a suggestion is recognized as you’re typing, you’ll see it appear to the right. The prediction is dimmed and has a Tab key icon.

• To accept a text prediction, press your Tab or right arrow key.
• To ignore a text prediction, keep typing the words you want.

Type Your Emails Faster With Text Predictions

Text Predictions is one of those handy Microsoft Outlook features that can make you more productive. And because it’s so easy to both accept and ignore a suggestion, it’s definitely worth using.

For more, take a look at these other time-saving tips for Outlook.

Google just announced a small but potentially handy update for its Gmail iOS app that lets you view emails from multiple accounts in a single inbox. That means you’ll no longer have to toggle between your inboxes to see your messages.

Do you have several different email accounts set up in the Gmail app on your iOS device? Google is making it a little easier to view all your messages at once.

The web giant just announced a small but potentially handy update for its Gmail iOS app that lets you view emails from multiple accounts in a single inbox. That means you’ll no longer have to toggle between your inboxes to see your messages.

This feature was already available on the Gmail Android app, and now Google is bringing it to iOS as well. To try it out, just select the “All Inboxes” option from the left-hand side of the app.

“This will show all your emails in a single list, but don’t worry—no emails will be shared between your accounts,” Google wrote.

This could save you some time, as long as you don’t mind viewing your work and personal messages together. If you’re one of those people who can’t stand to have your peas and carrots touching on your dinner plate, you’ll probably hate this option.

Google is rolling this out now and said it should reach all users within 15 days, so if you don’t see it right away, just sit tight.

Meanwhile, Google recently added another helpful feature to Gmail for iOS that uses artificial intelligence to notify you about “high-priority” emails only. That feature can help ensure you see important emails in a timely manner without receiving tons of notifications you don’t care about.

This feature was already available on the Gmail Android app, and now Google is bringing it to iOS as well. To try it out, just select the \”All Inboxes\” option from the left-hand side of the app. \r\n\r\n

\”This will show all your emails in a single list, but don’t worry—no emails will be shared between your accounts,\” Google wrote. \r\n\r\n

This could save you some time, as long as you don’t mind viewing your work and personal messages together. If you’re one of those people who can’t stand to have your peas and carrots touching on your dinner plate, you’ll probably hate this option. \r\n\r\n

Google is rolling this out now and said it should reach all users within 15 days, so if you don’t see it right away, just sit tight. \r\n\r\n

Messages, one of the quintessential apps on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, is the home of iMessages, Apple’s exclusive device-to-device messaging protocol indicated by those well-known blue chat bubbles.

If you’re an ‌‌iPhone‌‌ user you know how the Messages app works, but in iOS 14, the Messages app is getting some useful new features that are worth highlighting. Read on for a rundown of everything that’s new, and make sure to check out our included how tos for instructions on how to use all of the new features.

Updated Interface

Messages in ‌iOS 14‌ has an updated main interface that lets you choose to see all messages in one feed, all messages from your known senders list, or messages from unknown senders that are not in your contact list.

You can get to these different views by tapping on the “Filters” button in the main conversation list in the Messages app.

There’s also a new feature that lets you see typing indicators in the conversation list without needing to tap into a conversation, so you can see all of your contacts who are typing at a glance.

Pinned Chats

Your most important conversations can be pinned to the top of the Messages app by swiping to the right on any of the conversations in the main chat list.

Pinning a conversation turns it into a circle at the top of the Messages app, putting it front and center. You can pin a total of nine conversations.

Icons for pinned chats are dynamic, so you can see the photo of the participant overlaid with recent unread messages, Tapbacks, and typing indicators. Fun fact: Typing indicators on pinned chats will line up with the mouths for people who have a portrait photo or a Memoji selected as their shared image.

Both single person conversations and group conversations can be pinned, and each one has the same dynamic icon feature.

The images in pinned conversations are those that the people you’re chatting with have chosen to share with you. Shared profile photos are a feature that was introduced back in iOS 13. Group chats will have the photo that has been selected for the group, and ‌iOS 14‌ introduces new group photo customization options.

Inline Replies

Inline replies is a feature that’s designed to make it easier to organize chats that involve multiple people and/or multiple subjects.

If you’re in a chat with several people and there are conversations going on that cover multiple topics, you can make it clear who you want to reply to by using an inline reply.

Make an inline reply by long pressing on the message that you want to reply to and choosing the “Reply” option.

Inline replies will show up threaded under the original reply, and if you tap on one, you can see the entire conversation separate from the main chat conversation. Inline replies can be used in single person conversations or in group chats, but they’re most useful in multi-person chats.

Mentions

Mentions in the Messages app are designed to let you direct a message to a specific person in a group chat to get their attention or to make it clear who you’re speaking to in a multi-person conversation.

Mentions are available in both single person chats and group conversations, but are most useful in group chats.

You can mention someone by typing their specific name as it appears in contacts, so if your friend is Eric and you want to mention Eric, you’d type in his name, wait for it to turn gray, and then tap it to turn the name into a mention. The person you’re mentioning needs to be in the chat with you, of course.

Names that will function as mentions turn blue, so you know that the mention feature is working. Note that you can use @eric if you want to highlight someone’s name, but the @ isn’t necessary. It is, however, sometimes more convenient to use @ because it turns the name into a mention automatically without the need to tap on it.

With the mentions feature, you can mute noisy group chats but then activate a setting that alerts you when someone mentions your name, so you won’t miss out on important bits of the conversation that are directed specifically at you. Go to Settings > Messages > Notify Me to get a notification when your name is mentioned in a muted conversation.

Memoji

Apple’s Memoji feature lets you create a custom avatar that resembles you or how you prefer to be seen. In ‌iOS 14‌, Apple has added hew hairstyles, headwear, and age options so your Memoji can look more like you than ever before.

There are also masks so your Memoji can wear a mask as many of us are doing these days, and there are new Memoji stickers available to represent hugs, fist bumps, and blushing.

Emoji Search

Macs have long had an emoji interface that includes a search option, and now iOS devices do too. When you tap on the Emoji or Globe button to bring up the emoji interface, there’s now a search bar available where you can search through emoji by keyword to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Group Chat Customizations

‌iOS 14‌ allows icons to be picked in a group chat in addition to a name, allowing for greater customization of your group conversations so you can tell them apart. Just open the info tab of any group conversation to customize it.

You can choose a custom photo, letter, Memoji, Animoji, or emoji to serve as an icon for a group chat, as well as customizing the background color for the icon.

Guide Feedback

Have questions about Messages, know of an ‌iOS 14‌ feature we left out, or or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

With the iOS 8 Mail app, Apple introduces new gestures for easier one-handed navigation and control, fresh message management options and deeper integration with Notification Center.

While the overall design remains largely unchanged from iOS 7, Apple’s Mail app has quite a few feature additions under the hood that make it easier to compose, send, receive and manage messages.

The first substantial change comes in swipe gestures. As seen in the screenshot above, Mail now supports inline swiping gestures for flagging, archiving and deleting messages and threads. Swipe left to reveal email management options directly from the main messages list and tap on a selection to quickly clear an inbox.

A third “More” button brings up a contextual menu to reply, forward, flag, mark as unread, move to junk, move to folder and set an alert notification.

Alternatively, a longer swipe will automatically trash any message without having to perform a lift-and-tap gesture.

In the same vein, swiping right on a message bring up the option to mark it as read, while a longer swipe automatically toggles the read state without needing to tap.

Both right and left swipe gestures can be configured in the Mail, Contacts and Calendars settings menu to perform flag, mark as read and archive operations.

Apple also baked in support for “Notify me” alerts that can be configured to play when Mail receives a reply to an important message. Setting up a reply notification is as easy as clicking on the blue bell icon that appears in the subject line when composing a message.

Alternatively, alerts can be set after a message has been sent by navigating to an email thread, pressing the flag icon at the lower right of the screen and selecting “Notify me” from the contextual pop-up menu. From the main view, notify options can be found by swiping right and selecting “More.”

Another handy feature ties into Notification Center. Dubbed interactive notifications, iOS 8 users can now mark messages as read or delete the email altogether from anywhere in the operating system, including the lock screen.

As seen below, the lock screen option is based on the swiping gesture principle, except limits interaction to left swipes only. When an email is received, users can swipe left and tap to mark the message as read or delete it without entering the Mail app.

Elsewhere in iOS, emails will appear in an overlay at the top of the screen via Notification Center. Pulling down on the white “handlebar” will bring up the same “Mark as Read” and “Trash” options.

Another addition is integration with QuickType, Apple’s predictive text input system that comes as part of the new iOS 8 soft keyboard. Based on contextual clues, QuickType will suggest a number of word choices or phrases that appear just between the keyboard and text box (or message body in the case of Mail). Tapping on a suggestion will automatically input that text into a message, saving unnecessary key presses and possibly allowing an entire email to be written with a few taps.

According to Apple, QuickType knows who a user is talking to, as well as what the message is concerning, meaning suggestions that pop up for a friend will may be different than those for a colleague. Along with Apple’s familiar keyboard, the QuickType API is available to developers making third-party products like Swype.

Apple has also made it easier to switch between a drafts and inbox messages, letting users reference information from a received email without having to copy/paste or back out of the draft completely. As seen in the screenshots above, the draft message — or reply message — “hovers” over past emails and can be swiped down to reveal Mail’s inbox. From there, users can select, copy and paste information into the new draft or simply refer to previous messages while writing.

Finally, Mail includes buffed data detectors that automatically scan a message for pertinent information like event dates, times and locations, as well as sender information, for quick storage in the Calendar or Contacts apps.

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Comments (6)

dunks

Every year I wonder how they can possibly make it better whilst still keeping it simple and accessible. Every year they amaze me with new, and critically, useful features.

gilly33

Loving this update already. Quite a bit to learn over the next few days.

lolliver

Love all the new features of Mail. I would be interested if they could incorporate mail management similar to “Mailbox” however I’m not sure that could be done without making things too complicated. Plus not everyone would use features like that. I’m torn between which of those two mail clients I prefer but if there was an easy way to set a reminder on my emails and have them hidden from my mailbox until they were due then Mail would easily become my favourite.

jasenj1

I’m rather grumpy about the “swipe to archive/delete” behavior. Far too easy to accidentally delete something. I much preferred two intentional actions – swipe & push a button.

SpamSandwich

Loving the long swipe left to delete. Eliminates a lingering annoyance. .

Two days ago in my Outlook Mail Inbox a new message appeared that I cannot delete. The message reads, “Other: New messages” There is no other text that goes with it. Here is a a screen shot of the problem.

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Okay, I’m on board. Let’s see if we can figure this out. I have noticed that just before the ‘Other:New Messages’ appears, in the ad bar to the right I see a Microsoft message saying “It appears that you are using an ad blocker”.

It’s only there for a split second and when it disappears, the “Other:New Messages” bar appears. Are you guys seeing the same? I searched Windows and Chrome on my computer for ‘ad blockers’ and found nothing. I allowed pop-ups from Outlook but that didn’t do anything. Ran antivirus, malware etc etc and found nothing.

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In Outlook, I went to the ‘Help’ section and instead of the forums, and the FAQ’s sections, I went right to ‘Feedback’.

I sent a letter (with an attached screenshot) telling them/asking them about it. I’ll let you all know when and if I get a response.

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So am I. A moderator here private messaged me and asked for access to my Outlook account to see if they could reproduce the problem on the affected account. I replied saying that it isn’t account related because I can sign in on other devices or through Internet Explorer and not get the ‘Other:New Messages’ bar. I get it when I sign in through Chrome on my laptop and I will not give them access to my Outlook account AND my Chrome. I just have way to much personal and private informtion saved/stored there and I would be very uncomfortable giving anyone access to all that.

I did tell them that I’m almost positive that the bar is ad related. I only get it when the ad bar is present on the right in Outlook. When I sign in through IE or through Chrome on my tablet there is no ads panel. And there is no ‘Other:New Messages’ bar. Is this true for everyone else ?

Ever wish the stock Mail app could show only your unread messages? Or only messages that have attachments? It can, if you know where to look.

Apple’s Mail app for iOS has shown gradual improvement over the years, but it’s still missing one key feature: a filter or view that shows only your unread messages.

Or is it? Turns out Mail can perform that handy function very easily — if you know where to look for the setting. Here’s the procedure:

Step 1: Open the Mail app, then tap the Mailboxes button.

Step 2: You’ll see your mail account(s), possibly followed by options like VIP and Flagged. (If not, don’t worry.) But nothing here to indicate an “Unread” option, right?

Tap here to enable the Unread view. Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Step 3: Tap Edit. Now you should see Unread in the list of available choices. Tap the empty circle to select it. If you want, you can also drag it (using the “handle” on the right edge) up to the top of the list so it’s more readily available.

Drag the Unread view to the top for easier access to it. Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Step 4: Tap Done. Now tap the newly visible Unread mailbox. Presto! All your unread mail from all your accounts. Happy dance!

While in step three, you may have noticed one other tantalizing option: Attachments. Enable this for an inbox view that shows only those messages that have — wait for it — attachments!

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

The iOS Mail app just got a whole lot more useful.