Redesign of Apple Mail: Automatic categories donate confusion

With the latest updates, Apple has redesigned the email client pre-installed on iPhones, iPads and Macs: In iOS 18.4, Ipados 18.4 and MacOS 15.4 Sequoia, Apple Mail automatically sorts all emails in four categories. As a result, emails can apparently disappear from the inbox, as some users complain about. The reason is that Apple Mail assigns these communications from another category – and they are no longer visible directly in the inbox.

Apple tries to counteract the new function with information and explains the new categories with integrated information. However, this should easily overlook this – especially if there is already panic for supposedly disappeared emails.

Deactivate categories in Apple Mail

The classification itself is very simple: Apple Mail differentiates between “important”, in this category particularly relevant emails should land. There are also “transactions” (such as orders and shipping messages), “news” (such as newsletter) and “advertising”. In the latter, spam does not end up, but wanted advertising-for example on offers from online shops.

The categories are not suitable as Spam filters: Spam and phishing emails that end up in the inbox are sorted as well as other emails and that under “important” with a marking as “time-critical”, after all, phishing scams rely on urgency. The categories have been on the iPhone for a long time. However, they have only been available since iOS 18.2 if the operating system was operated in English and only designed for English-language emails. That has now changed with iOS 18.4.

If you want to see all the emails again, you have to wipe the bar with the categories from right to left – either with your finger or with a mouse / trackpad. The “All e-mails” category is hidden there. Alternatively, users can switch back to classic list display at any time: this hides behind the button with the three points. There you can also see with the point “About categories” how many news Apple Mail has sorted.

New Apple Mail without Intelligence

The function works regardless of Apple Intelligence and is therefore also available on older devices. The classification apparently takes place locally on the devices and seems to have a few cleverly so far. The user can assign incorrectly sorted mails to another category by hand, subsequent emails should then land there. However, this re -sorting seems to be strictly based on the respective sender address.