BERLIN: Apple recently rolled out a controversial new feature to the company's Mail app that sees emails automatically being sorted into four categories.
In the weeks since, the response has been mixed at best.
Many users took to social media to express their frustration and confusion at "one of the most annoying new features" Apple has devised in years.
While the idea was to help the user by keeping personal emails away from corporate ones, some found it forced them to check four inboxes instead of just one.
"Now I have to go through my entire mailbox to make sure they haven’t relegated important senders to sub-junk categories," one user complained.
For better or worse, Apple has enabled by categories default on both iPhones and iPads (from iOS version 18.4) as well as on Mac computers (from MacOS version 15.4).
Every incoming email is assigned to one of the following categories:
- Primary: Personal messages and time-sensitive information
- Transactions: Confirmations, receipts, and shipping notices
- Updates: News, newsletters and social media update
- Promotions: Advertising, coupons and sales emails
Thankfully, anyone who finds the categories unhelpful can turn them off by clicking or tapping on the three-dot menu and then unchecking the "Show Mail Categories" option. This instantly restores the familiar full list view.
Otherwise, when you open your Mail app, you'll see the "Primary" list first by default. It is located on the far left in the row of category tabs. This list includes not only personal messages but also emails from other categories that require immediate attention.
At the end of the category tab row, there is also an "All Mail" tab, which displays the full list even if mail categories are not disabled.
This tab is usually not directly visible. However, it can be brought into view by swiping from right to left over the category tabs using a finger, mouse, or touchpad. Alternatively, a tap or click on an active list will also return the user to the "All Mail" view.
If emails from a sender repeatedly end up in the wrong category, you can change the sender's category from "Automatic" to the right category.
For example, on a Mac, this can be done by right-clicking on the email and selecting the option in the context menu. You can also see the statistics on how many emails are being sent to certain categories in the three-dot menu under "About Categories." – dpa
