Mail has always been something of a star in iOS. It
effectively supports many types of account, and its unified inbox makes it easy
to see all your messages in one place without being distracted by outgoing
notes, reminders and spam.
Some of its most obvious features are hidden, though, while
others leave room for improvements that we’d like to see, such as faster filing
and greater use of gestures to handle incoming messages.
Mail has always
been something of a star in iOS
Fortunately, with a little bit of knowhow and perhaps an
inexpensive third- party app or two, you can reboot your online communications
and get email on iOS working as flexibly and efficiently as you need.
Here we’ll walk you through some essential tips for exploring
the default Mail app to the full, and then we’ll pick out some of the best
alternatives and addons to make sure you get the most out of email on the
move.
Account details in iOS Mail are handled not within the Mail
app itself, but in Settings. To add a new account, go to Settings > Mail,
Contacts, Calendars > Add Account and then select the account type.
If you’re adding a Gmail account and you also use Google
Contacts and Calendar, avoid the temptation to opt for the Gmail account type:
instead, select Microsoft Exchange. Set the Sever as m.google.com, leave the
Domain box empty and enter your complete email address - including the @ and
the bit that follows it - as the username. Opt to use SSL. This way you’ll also
be able to accurately synchronise your iOS calendar and address book with the
Google servers.
You can set up multiple iCloud addresses in Mail if you
share your iOS device with a family member or colleague. But if you want to
split your own mail across more than one iCloud inbox - perhaps because you
want to keep personal and business emails separate - consider setting up an
alias instead. In Safari or your favourite browser on the Mac (not in iOS), go
to icloud.com/#mail, click the cog icon and select Preferences > Accounts
> Addan alias. Give your new alias a name, a description and, optionally, a
colour to help you identify incoming messages via that address in the iCloud
web view. You can add a maximum of three aliases to each account (the limit was
five in MobileMe).
Once you’ve saved your alias, head back to Mail on iOS,
create a new message and tap the ‘Cc/Bcc, From’ line, then select the alias you
want to use to send this message. You can also select any other email account
stored in Mail in this way without first stepping back out of your mailbox.
Also known as
Creating aliases in iCIoud lets you run several addresses out of a single
mailbox
Flagging messages
‘Flagging’ a message makes it easier to find later: Mail
stamps a small red flag to the left of its preview in your inbox. If you’re
using a synchronised account that supports flagging, such as iCloud or Gmail,
the flag status will be passed back to the server, although not usually
instantly, and from there to your other clients. The flag will then also appear
in OS XMail, where all flagged messages are gathered in the Reminders group.
Pick me Tap the ‘Cc/Bcc, From’ line in Mail to choose the address you’d like to
use to brand your outgoing message
To flag a message, tap Mark in the header area, followed by
Flag. You can clear the flag by tapping Mark again, followed by Unflag.
Sadly, iOS Mail lacks the ability to isolate flagged
messages in a smart mailbox. At present, therefore, the only reason to flag a
message - apart from the fact that it’s also flagged on your Mac - is to make
it more spot table as you scroll down your inbox.
