Learn how to customize the Mail app on your Apple Watch to ensure you receive the right emails on your wrist.
While it’s often easier to send emails from your iPhone than your Apple Watch, having the Mail app on your wrist is convenient for staying on top of important messages.
If you use your Apple Watch to check emails, optimizing the compact screen can make a big difference. By tweaking Mail settings, you can select which accounts to display, adjust the number of preview lines, set up quick replies, and choose the mailboxes you want to see.
Ready to spend a few minutes customizing the Mail app on your Apple Watch?
Customize your Apple Watch Mail app from the iPhone Watch app
Pop open the Watch app on your iPhone and tap Mail in the My Watch tab. You can then make the following adjustments.
Mirror or Custom
You can have the Mail app on your Watch mirror the settings for notifications on your iPhone by selecting Mirror my iPhone.
But if you want different notification settings for your emails, tap Custom to change things up.
If you pick Custom, you’ll notice a few extra settings open at the bottom. You can enable the toggles for Ask Before Deleting, Load Remote Images, Organize By Thread, etc.
When not connected to iPhone
Apple Watches running watchOS 10, 11, and later, can notify you of new emails even when they aren’t connected to the paired iPhone. To add email accounts to this section:
- Add them to your iPhone by going to Settings > Apps > Mail > Mail Accounts > Add Account.
- Next, open the Watch app, go to My Watch > Mail > Accounts, and sign in if required.
- You will see your new email under the “When not connected to iPhone” heading. Sign in again if required, and leave the Email Notifications switch on.
Accounts
This section simply shows you the Mail accounts you have set up.
Include Mail
This is where you can choose which Mail accounts and specific mailboxes you want to display on your Watch. You can also choose to see flagged, unread, and VIP emails by marking a check next to those options.
If you scroll down to Accounts, you can tap each of your Mail accounts and select which folders or inboxes you want to view. This is useful if you want to limit what you see to only certain items.
Message Preview
You can pick from None, 1 Line, or 2 Lines for your number of preview text lines.
Default Replies
You can set up a list of Default Replies as a quick way to reply to an email from your Apple Watch without using the tiny keyboard, scribble, or dictation.
Tap the Add reply button at the bottom of the screen and type your text or emoji to save as a quick default reply. You can also hit Edit at the top to remove, replace, or rearrange your replies.
Signature
You can use one signature for all accounts on Apple Watch. Just tap in the signature box to add your text with personal information like your name, email address, company, phone number, etc. If you don’t want to add a new signature, you can leave the default, which is “Sent from my Apple Watch.”
Note: You may only see the Signature section for your iCloud account and not others like your Gmail account or Yahoo.
Customize Mail directly on your Apple Watch
If you open the Mail app directly on your Apple Watch, you can make a few changes there as well. Although you cannot customize as many things, you can decide on the fly which mailboxes and folders to display.
Scroll to the bottom of the mailboxes screen and tap Edit. Similar to the Watch app, you can choose which Mail accounts to display along with VIPs, flagged, and unread items.
Tap each account at the bottom to choose which folders or inboxes to view.
Do you use the Mail app on your Apple Watch often?
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