{"id":6316,"date":"2015-04-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T10:53:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T15:53:53","slug":"iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms","title":{"rendered":"iPhone vs. Android: How to Make Email Look Great On Mobile"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, nearly 60% of American adults own a smartphone, so it’s more important than ever to make email look great on mobile. iPhone and Android purchases are nearly even in the US\u2014iPhone represents 47.7% of sales<\/a>, while Android holds 47.6% of market share. In most of Europe and China, Android has the majority of purchases, followed by iOS. Conversely, in Japan, iOS holds the majority with over 60% of sales. That’s a lot! Mobile email design is more important than ever.<\/p>\n

While looking at worldwide purchase data is a great indicator of smartphone adoption, it\u2019s your audience that matters. What smartphones are most popular with email subscribers?<\/p>\n

Understand your audience<\/h3>\n

Beyond sales, email opens are another great indicator of smartphone popularity\u2014in particular, what devices are favored among your audience.<\/p>\n

Mobile opens now represent over 50%<\/a> of total email opens. The majority of these mobile opens occur on the iPhone, which represents 26% of total opens, and Android, which holds 7% of total opens.<\/p>\n

Why the discrepancy between sales and email opens? While iOS displays images by default, many Android apps do not. Since determining where an email is opened requires images to load<\/a>, data for some apps and programs are over- or under-represented due to automatic image blocking.<\/p>\n

Like smartphone sales, looking at email open data as a whole is great for identifying trends. What\u2019s more important is understanding where your<\/strong> subscribers are opening<\/a> your emails. Tracking and analyzing which apps and programs your subscribers are using is one of the best ways to optimize your campaigns for your audience.<\/p>\n

\"EA-analytics\"<\/figure>\n

You can use Litmus Email Analytics<\/a> data to get this information.<\/p>\n

Embrace email as an app<\/h3>\n

With 60% of adults owning smartphones, it\u2019s clear that people like consuming content whenever and wherever they want. Their favorite type of content? Email, of course<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"Activity<\/figure>\n

With so many people using smartphones\u2014and email being the most popular activity on those devices\u2014it\u2019s important to assess how your emails display on those small screens.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to consider when it comes to mobile email design. On top of the multitude of smartphones, users have dozens of different email apps to choose from\u2014each with their own set of rendering quirks. An email in the native Android email app can display very differently from the same email in the Gmail app.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"AndroidNative-Responsive\"<\/figure>\n

Android 4.x Native Email App (Responsive)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"AndroidGmailApp-NonResponsive\"<\/figure>\n

Android Gmail App (Non-responsive)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Understanding where your audience is opens emails is crucial, especially considering that 71% of people will delete an email if it doesn\u2019t look good on their mobile device\u2014and 16% will unsubscribe!<\/p>\n

Know the limits<\/h3>\n

When it comes to optimizing for your iOS and Android subscribers, it\u2019s important to remember that not all mobile email apps have the same HTML and CSS support. That would make email creation too easy, now wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

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

Media Queries<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Image Blocking<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

ALT Text<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Styled ALT Text<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Preview Text<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Android 4.x (native email client)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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

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

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

Android Yahoo! Mail App<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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

iOS Mail app (native email client)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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

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

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

iOS Yahoo! Mail app<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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

*Images are enabled by default in iOS, but were manually disabled for testing purposes. iOS Gmail app does not have an option to disable images.<\/p>\n

For example, iOS and Android email apps have mixed support for responsive design<\/a>, which aims to provide subscribers with the best email experience possible\u2014regardless of whether they\u2019re reading on mobile or desktop.<\/p>\n

Responsive email uses a media query, which is a special set of CSS styles that act like conditional statements. They respond to the screen size of a device, applying different sets of rules based on that screen size.<\/p>\n

While responsive design allows for an optimal email experience across environments, media queries aren\u2019t supported everywhere (see chart above). To further complicate things, while media queries are supported in the Android native email app, they are not supported on Samsung Android devices\u2014even in the native client. This is a result of Samsung replacing the native Android email app with an email app of their own. You can use a hybrid coding approach to make your emails responsive in this client.<\/p>\n

In addition, since\u00a0media queries aren’t\u00a0universally supported, consider using these mobile friendly elements<\/a> as a backup for when media queries aren\u2019t supported:<\/p>\n

Simplify content and design<\/h3>\n

People look at their phone an average of 150 times a day. These brief interactions mean you must get your point across quickly. Focus on relevant information in your campaigns, allowing subscribers to scan your email quickly.<\/p>\n

In addition, consider using a one-column design for increased legibility. Two or more columns crowd the small screen of a mobile device, making it difficult for subscribers to read and interact with your email.<\/p>\n

Make everything bigger<\/h3>\n

To further increase legibility and scanability, use large fonts. Subscribers shouldn\u2019t have to zoom in on their mobile devices to read your email\u2014make your fonts big enough so that even the worst eyes can easily read your message.<\/p>\n

We recommend using a minimum size of 14px for body copy and 22px for headlines. Keeping text at least 14px will avoid broken navigation bars and other layout elements on iOS, which automatically resizes small copy to a minimum of 13px.<\/p>\n

In addition, use buttons that are touch-friendly. We recommend using a 44x44px minimum button size. Be sure to surround it with plenty of white space! You want to ensure that your CTAs are easy for subscribers to tap, so don\u2019t surround them with text or other links.<\/p>\n

Design defensively<\/h3>\n

Many Android and iOS email apps block images by default<\/a>. As a result, it\u2019s crucial to optimize your emails and plan for this scenario. You\u2019ll still want your subscribers to be able to read and interact with the majority of your message regardless of whether images are on or off.<\/p>\n

Use a proper balance of HTML text and imagery (HTML text will still display in an images-off environment) to ensure that pertinent information will still be present even if images are not.<\/p>\n

In addition, alternative text (ALT text), which renders in place of an image in most image-blocking scenarios, is one of the best ways to get around apps that block images. You can even used styled ALT text<\/a> to make your descriptions pop!<\/p>\n

\"ALT<\/figure>\n

Optimize for the inbox<\/h3>\n

Since subscribers first interact with your email in the inbox, it\u2019s crucial to optimize for this view. Always use a trustworthy from name that your subscribers will recognize. In addition, use a subject line<\/a> that describes what\u2019s in the email and entices your subscribers to open it.<\/p>\n

All of the iOS and Android email apps referenced above support preview text. Use this extra few lines of text\u2014paired with the subject line\u2014to further encourage your subscribers to open! Preview text<\/a> is pulled from the first few lines of text in your HTML, so be sure text like \u201cview as webpage\u201d or \u201chaving trouble seeing this?\u201d aren\u2019t showing up.<\/p>\n

\"Inbox<\/figure>\n

Test, test, test!<\/h3>\n

In order to produce the best-performing campaigns\u2014on not only Android and iOS email apps, but in every inbox\u2014you should constantly test your campaigns. Support for email apps is always changing\u2014so testing before every send<\/a> ensures that your campaigns will look and work as they should.<\/p>\n

In addition, use A\/B testing<\/a> to see what resonates with your audience. There are countless things to test, including headlines, preview\u00a0text, from names, and design elements. It\u2019s one of the most effective (and easy!) ways to make measurable improvements to your campaigns.<\/p>\n

DISCOVER + OPTIMIZE FOR YOUR MOBILE AUDIENCE<\/h2>\n

Are your emails mobile-optimized? Should they be? Looking at sales data only paints a partial picture\u2014it\u2019s important to look at your subscribers\u2019 behavior. After all, they\u2019re the ones you’re sending to, not the general population.<\/p>\n

With Litmus\u2019 Email Analytics you can see who is opening on iPhone and Android. Then, use Email Previews to get screenshots of your email in popular apps and programs.<\/p>\n

BOOK A DEMO \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With so many people using smartphones\u2014and email being the most popular activity on those devices\u2014it\u2019s important to assess how your emails display on those small screens. There\u2019s a lot to consider when it comes to mobile email design. On top of the multitude of smartphones, users have dozens of different email apps to choose from\u2014each with their own set of rendering quirks. In this post, we take a look at differences in rendering across the numerous iOS and Android mobile email apps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[238,106,468,90,10254,179,9805],"blog_category":[53],"class_list":["post-6316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alt-text","tag-gmail","tag-images","tag-ios","tag-preview","tag-responsive-email","tag-text","blog_category-tips-resources"],"yoast_head":"\niPhone vs. Android: How to Make Email Look Great On Mobile - Litmus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s so important to assess how your emails display on mobile. We look at differences in rendering across iOS and Android mobile email apps.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"iPhone vs. Android: How to Make Email Look Great On Mobile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s so important to assess how your emails display on mobile. We look at differences in rendering across iOS and Android mobile email apps.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Litmus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/litmusapp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-10T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-22T15:53:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/iphone-vs-android-header1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"690\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"362\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@litmusapp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@litmusapp\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"iPhone vs. Android: How to Make Email Look Great On Mobile - Litmus","description":"It\u2019s so important to assess how your emails display on mobile. We look at differences in rendering across iOS and Android mobile email apps.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"iPhone vs. Android: How to Make Email Look Great On Mobile","og_description":"It\u2019s so important to assess how your emails display on mobile. We look at differences in rendering across iOS and Android mobile email apps.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms","og_site_name":"Litmus","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/litmusapp","article_published_time":"2015-04-10T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-22T15:53:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":690,"height":362,"url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/iphone-vs-android-header1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@litmusapp","twitter_site":"@litmusapp","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"iPhone vs. Android: How to Make Email Look Great On Mobile","datePublished":"2015-04-10T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-22T15:53:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms"},"wordCount":1347,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/iphone-vs-android-header1.png","keywords":["Alt Text","Gmail","Images","iOS","Preview","Responsive Email","Text"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms","name":"iPhone vs. Android: How to Make Email Look Great On Mobile - Litmus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/iphone-vs-android-header1.png","datePublished":"2015-04-10T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-22T15:53:53+00:00","description":"It\u2019s so important to assess how your emails display on mobile. We look at differences in rendering across iOS and Android mobile email apps.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/iphone-vs-android-header1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/iphone-vs-android-header1.png","width":690,"height":362},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/iphone-vs-android-how-to-get-your-email-looking-great-on-both-platforms#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"iPhone vs. Android: How to Make Email Look Great On Mobile"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/","name":"Litmus","description":"Are you getting the most out of your email marketing?","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#organization","name":"Litmus Software","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/featured-image.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/featured-image.png","width":600,"height":314,"caption":"Litmus Software"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/litmusapp","https:\/\/x.com\/litmusapp"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":""}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6316"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121742,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316\/revisions\/121742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6316"},{"taxonomy":"blog_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_category?post=6316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}