{"id":4249,"date":"2017-03-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/the-ultimate-guide-to-email-on-android\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T16:28:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:28:36","slug":"the-ultimate-guide-to-email-on-android","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/the-ultimate-guide-to-email-on-android","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Guide to Email on Android"},"content":{"rendered":"

Building emails that perform well on mobile is key for every email marketer\u2014and with that, optimizing for Android environments has become more and more crucial. Google\u2019s Android is the world\u2019s most popular mobile operating system<\/a>, followed by Apple\u2019s iOS.<\/p>\n

But building emails that look great on Android devices is hard!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because there isn\u2019t just one Android environment to optimize for, but a highly fragmented market that challenges every email marketer who aims for a consistent experience for all subscribers.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\n\n

How does your email look on Android?<\/h2>\n

Litmus offers the most extensive set of Android clients for email testing. Make sure your email looks great in the most popular Android environments, including:<\/p>\n

Android 4.4 Native Email Client
\nAndroid 5.1 (Vanilla)
\nAndroid 6.0 (Vanilla)
\nAndroid Gmail App (Gmail accounts)
\nAndroid Gmail App (IMAP accounts)<\/p>\n

Sign up now\u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

What makes building email for Android so tough? There are three key factors that impact how your email renders on Android: the Android operating system (OS) version, the app or email client your subscribers use, and the size of the screen your email is viewed on.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at them one by one:<\/p>\n

1. The Android Operating System<\/h2>\n

Like any other operating system (OS), Android comes in different versions. Unlike Apple\u2019s iOS, which enjoys high adoption rates as soon as Apple releases a new version, many Android devices are not eligible to upgrade to newer OS releases. As a result, it\u2019s often not the most recent operating system that powers most Android devices, but a mixture of older Android versions.<\/p>\n

Android 5 Lollipop, first released in November 2014, is currently the most popular Android OS, with 33% of all Android devices running this version. Android Marshmallow (first released in October 2015) ranks second with a market share of 31%, followed by Kitkat, a fairly old OS from 2013, that still powers 22% of all Android devices. In contrast, Android Nougat, Google\u2019s most recent release (October 2016), currently only accounts for 1% of all devices.<\/p>\n

\"Android
Android platform version market share. Source: Android Developers<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you were to dig deeper into these numbers, you\u2019d see that the popularity of versions of Android varies across countries, too.<\/p>\n

\"Android
Source: Device Atlas<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result, email designers who build email for an Android audience not only have to optimize their messages for the most recent Android release, but for a whole set of popular versions of Google\u2019s operating system. And\u2014you might have already seen this coming\u2014each OS version comes with its very own rendering quirks. <\/span><\/p>\n

2. The App or Client<\/b><\/h2>\n

When we talk about email on Android, we also have to distinguish between different email clients.<\/p>\n

The Native Email App<\/b><\/h3>\n

Google\u2019s stock email app that comes with the Android operating system, came preinstalled on all Android devices running on Android 4.4 (KitKat) and below. Vendors who wanted to run their devices on the Android had no choice but to provide the Android native email client as well.<\/p>\n

However, starting with Android Lollipop (5.0), Google has <\/span>nixed out-of-the-box support for its native email app<\/span><\/a>, making it possible for vendors to use Android without being forced to integrate the default apps. <\/span><\/p>\n

While the native email app is no longer installed by default on all Android phones, Google\u2019s apps developed for Android remain available as open source to vendors and the public. Vendors, like Samsung or Sony, are free to use Google\u2019s so-called \u201cvanilla\u201d version of the email app and make any changes they like\u2014or develop their very own email app from scratch.<\/span><\/p>\n

This has lead to even more fragmentation in the Android email client market.<\/p>\n

The Gmail App<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Gmail app is Google\u2019s new default email app that is pre-installed on many Android devices.<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast to the native Android email app\u2019s solid HTML and CSS support, the Gmail app has caused email marketers headaches in the past. Similar to Gmail\u2019s web client, the Gmail app on Android <\/span>was<\/span><\/i> known for its poor HTML and CSS support. <\/span><\/p>\n

In September 2016, however, <\/span>things changed<\/span><\/a>. The massive update to Gmail\u2019s rendering engine also applied to its mobile application, allowing email developers to take advantage of <\/span>responsive email design<\/span><\/a>, advanced font styling options, and improved support for CSS. <\/span><\/p>\n

Rendering Trouble with IMAP and POP Accounts in Gmail<\/b><\/h3>\n

There is, however, one exception: Google\u2019s improved rendering engine does not apply to POP\/IMAP accounts using the Gmail app. These are non-Gmail email accounts (such as @<\/span>yahoo.com<\/span>, @<\/span>outlook.com<\/span>, @<\/span>gmx.de<\/span>, etc.) accessed through the Gmail app via POP and IMAP. <\/span><\/p>\n

In this case, Gmail still relies on the old rendering engine and its lack of support for CSS and media queries<\/a>. Users who use a Gmail address and <\/span>G Suite<\/span><\/a> will enjoy responsive design and advanced CSS support\u2014users who use a non-Gmail address, on the other hand, will not.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email developer R\u00e9mi Parmentier took a deep dive into the <\/span>different types of Gmail account<\/span><\/a>s and how email rendering differs per account.<\/span><\/p>\n

The significant inconsistencies in rendering for Gmail and POP\/IMAP accounts have caused lots of confusion in the email world. To clear things up, here\u2019s how rendering in a classic Gmail account compares to its IMAP or POP counterpart:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

\n<\/td>\n

\n

Gmail<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Gmail (IMAP)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

The Basics<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Style support in head<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-X\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Media query<\/a> support<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-green\"<\/td>\n\"check-X\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

CSS attribute selector support<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-X\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Classes<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-X\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Ids<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-X\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Images and Visuals<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Images enabled<\/a> by default?<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-green\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Animated GIF<\/a> support<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-green\"<\/td>\n\"check-green\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

ALT text support<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-green\"<\/td>\n\"check-green\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Styled ALT text<\/a> support<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-green\"<\/td>\n\"check-green\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Background images support<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-X\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

HTML5 video support<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-X\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Spacing<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Padding<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-green\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Margin<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-green\"<\/td>\n\"check-green\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

max-width<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-green\"<\/td>\n\"check-green\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Typography<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Headers<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-green\"<\/td>\n\"check-green\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Paragraphs<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-green\"<\/td>\n\"check-green\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Web fonts<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-X\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Progressive Enhancement<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Border Radius<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-green\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Interactivity \u2014 checkbox\/radio button support<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-green\"<\/td>\n\"check-X\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Animation \u2014 transitions\/keyframe animation support<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\"check-X\"<\/td>\n\"check-X\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Is your brain hurting already? Take a deep breath and stay with us, because there is one more thing you need to know.<\/span><\/p>\n

Device Screen Size and Resolution<\/h2>\n

With Apple\u2019s iPhones, understanding screen sizes is simple. Since the release of the first iPhone, there are only 13 different devices with <\/span>seven different screen sizes<\/span><\/a> and six different resolutions. Compare this to Android, which has over <\/span>4,000 devices<\/span><\/a> in circulation with a <\/span>multitude of screen sizes and resolutions<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Android
Android device screen size fragmentation vs. iOS devices from OpenSignal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Why does screen size and resolution matter for email marketers? Screen size will give you an indication of which <\/span>media queries<\/span><\/a> to use if you want to optimize for a certain set of devices. The more screen sizes you\u2019d like to optimize for, the more complex your media queries will get. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How should you handle the Android madness when coding email?<\/b><\/h2>\n

As the world\u2019s most popular mobile operating system, Android can\u2019t be ignored by email marketers\u2014even though the heavy fragmentation makes optimizing emails for Android environments a pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

But how do you tackle the complexities of making email work for Android devices? Here are some tips to get you started:<\/span><\/p>\n