Maybe I am missing something… but why is there all of that empty space on the bottom menu bar in the Mail app? At least let me select some frequently used icons to put down there. It looks odd with two icons on the right and nothing on the left. Now some things that took one tap take multiple. I think iOS 13 is a downgrade for the Mail app.
Agreed. What buttons would you want to add there? You can get close with Flag, Move or Mark as Read by setting the Left Swipe preference in Settings > Mail > Swipe Options. Then they are just a quick swipe left to access. Screenshot over here on this post:
Also the trash animation is annoyingly slow and seems glitchy. (I have the latest hardware, as of today!)
I would love to have move and archive down there. When processing email I either trash it, archive it or move it to a reference/later action folder. I have never had both archive and delete at the bottom (other than a long press) but at least I had move down there before.
Personally I really like the way Mail looks and feels in iOS 13. I think it’s the first time I can say that. I always thought the previous designs were too utilitarian. This one feels clean and I like that.
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there are two great updates so far IMHO - 1. dark mode & 2. swiping down to select multiple items in select mode.
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You can’t get them on the bottom toolbar afaik but a suggestion is to put Move in left swipe and Archive in right swipe (Settings > Mail > Swipe Options). That makes them pretty quick to access even when viewing an email message without having to tap on the arrow menu and search through all the operations.
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Yeah, this particular update seems bizarre. I don’t understand why anyone would think that removing some of those icons is a useful change.
As has been mentioned, you can add the missing functionality to the swipe choices (so now I have to swipe and tap to move a message to another folder instead of just tapping). But if some of those icons are still down there, what was accomplished? How did anyone’s experience improve? Were people clamoring for two less icons at the bottom of the screen?
Agree that the new icon set is better looking. Just that removing icons (and leaving the bottom of the screen unbalanced) is the same kind of design choice that brought us things like the butterfly keyboard.
I can only think that everything inside the menu exposed by the reply button is something not enough people want? I agree it’d be nice to choose which 2-3 extra one tap actions you want to see on that toolbar. They could still separate them from reply and archive with a divider to make it clear that they are extra.
Oh, I see. They’ve crammed all of those functions into one view that you get to from tapping what looks like a reply icon. So if I want to archive, move, or flag a message, I need to hit the “Reply” button.
More and more I find myself wondering about Apple’s choices when stuff like this happens in the interface design. Is it because whoever worked on this didn’t know that an arrow like that means something specific in an email program, or is it because they just don’t care that it already meant something?
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I’ve been wondering about this as well. Gmail has a reply icon with a drop down badge that I think could work better, although the reply icon is a status, not an action (you see it when you’re already editing your reply.)
Either way, I actually find it natural to use that menu in Mail, for some reason, but I agree the icon doesn’t describe what happens when you tap it. Maybe they figured that more people would hit reply than a menu icon? It’s a bit sloppy.
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That ‘reply button’ is not at all intuitive. I’m all for whitespace in UI, but there’s nothing wrong about using that bottom row for useful buttons (like move/archive/delete).
I couldn’t agree more.
Also, the two (meagre) buttons are positioned so/too close together - although they are functionally dramatically different.
With my butterfingers, I have frequently deleted a mail although I only wanted to reply/more/whatever … !
I am slowly getting used to the new design. I was looking forward to the opportunity to customize fonts. Is there a way to change the default font for email? I can’t believe you have an option to change font, and not be able to change the default. Hopefully I’m missing something obvious.
I was just looking into the custom font thing myself yesterday. I too an uncertain. I haven’t found any apps I’m willing to download that will load fonts on my iPhone yet, so until I get a good recommendation that takes advantage of the new font loading feature I’m in a holding pattern.
Update! In the following post, Gruber points out how you can change Trash to Archive on the bottom toolbar (BUT you’ll loose trash so “side swiping” still needed):
Settings > Passwords & Accounts > [choose one of your accounts] > Account > Advanced > Move Discarded Messages Into > Archive Mailbox
Thanks for posting this. Didn’t realise you can also long press on the trash or archive button.
This redesign strikes me as Jony Ive’s revenge – one last little irritant in the name of design on his way out the door.
The row of buttons has been restored. In 13.5.1, the toolbar on the bottom of my messages shows an Archive button, a Move button, a Reply button (that still doesn’t generate a reply but instead displays a whole bunch of buttons, including a Reply button), and a Compose button.
I had grown accustomed to swiping right to archive a message, but I still prefer the toolbar buttons.
Hooray.
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