Learn how to hide contact photos in Apple Mail for iPhone, iPad, and Mac to get a compact email list and view more messages at a glance, eliminating wasted space.
The built-in Mail app on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac shows profile icons or Apple-assigned images if the sender hasn’t added their own contact photo. While they look nice, these images take up valuable space, so you see fewer messages at once.
Apple’s generic placeholders, such as bland buildings or generic storefronts, can be particularly distracting and spoil the clean look of your inbox. Fortunately, you can turn off contact photos in Mail to free up space and view more email messages at a glance without scrolling, and here are three ways to do this.
Method 1: Turn off ‘Show Contact Photos’ in Apple Mail
- Open the built-in Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Go to the All Inboxes view.
- Hit the three-dotted icon in the top-right corner and untick the Show Contact Photos option. You can do so from both Categories and List views to turn off profile images in either view.
Method 2: Turn off contact photos in the Settings app
You can also toggle contact photos in the Mail settings.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Apps, then choose Mail in the list of apps.
- Turn off the switch for Show Contact Photos.
Return to your inbox in the Mail app and contact photos wil be hidden.
Method 3: Increase text size for the Mail app to hide profile images
You can also change per-app text size, which will force the Mail app to adapt by hiding contract photos in the inbox.
- Edit the Control Center on your iPhone or iPad to add the Text Size control.
- Open the Mail app and swipe down from the top-right corner to open the Control Center.
- Touch and hold the Text Size control, choose Mail Only, and increase text size to at least 160%.
Hide contact photos in Apple Mail for Mac
The Mac has much more screen space than your iPhone. Nevertheless, you can declutter your inbox by hiding senders’ contact photos, creating more room for emails. To do so, click the View menu and untick the Show Contact Photo option.
Bonus tip: Set custom profile images for favorite senders
If you actually prefer contact photos in the Mail list, but not Apple’s generic images for senders without a profile photo, save the sender as a contact and assign it a custom photo or emoji. Now the Mail app will show that profile image for all emails from that particular sender instead of Apple’s bland icon.
The methods above remove contact photos from the inbox list, but they still appear when you open the message. Unfortunately, Mail doesn’t let you remove senders’ contact photos from email views.
Other Mail tips
Make the most out of the Mail app with these 40 quick tips for Apple Mail. For better organization of your inboxes, try creating email subfolders and using different colored flags to highlight specific emails. If you predominantly use the Mail app on your Mac, you can even use smart addresses to display only the recipient’s name instead of their full name and email address.
Do you prefer contact photos next to emails in your Mail inboxes? Have you already hidden these profile images, and if so, why? Let us know in the comments!