You’ve got Mail

Three changes that will improve Apple’s email app

Unlike Notes and Maps, Apple’s native Mail app hasn’t been given a makeover in iOS 9, but a few tweaks have been made that will make managing your email less of a headache. Plus, Mail reaps the benefits of iOS 9’s iPad multitasking features, which are game-changing on their own.

Attachments

The biggest change is the long-awaited support for file attachments. Now you can attach a document with a long press in the body of a message. Before,

your only option to add files to emails was to insert videos and photos. You can also save attachments by pressing on the file until the share sheet pops up with a new ‘Save attachment’ option. You can save to iCloud Drive or other locations, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or another cloud storage locker (if you have those apps installed). You can select only one file at a time to add, which is mildly annoying, but if you’re trying to attach several files to one email, you’re better off sharing a folder with the recipient. Proactive search

Apple is finally reaching its goal of turning your iPhone, with the help of Spotlight and Siri, into the best digital assistant around. In iOS 9, the search bar now turns up results from Mail, like documents and contacts, when you enter in keywords. The ability for search and Siri to tap into Mail gets even more useful when a strange number calls you – Siri will jump into your email to see if the digits match any in your inbox. If someone sends you an email

with a phone number, you can now easily add it to Contacts to prevent that unknown number issue.

Multitasking

The trio of multitasking tools iOS 9 brings to the iPad are pretty good, but they give Mail specifically a big boost in terms of productivity. Sadly, you can only tap into these features on the iPad Air, Air 2, mini 2 and mini 3 (and Split View is exclusive to the iPad Air 2). But if you have a late-model iPad, multitasking with Mail is about to change your work routine.

Slide Over

You can only use the new Slide Over app sidebar with Apple’s built-in apps, and Mail happens to be the perfect use case. Press on the right side of your iPad and swipe right to bring the app tray into your sidebar. From there, you can select an app to open in the right-hand third of your screen, so if you’re composing an email and need to map your route to

a destination, just pull up Maps and search for an address without leaving your message.

Split View

If you have an iPad Air 2, you can use Split View instead of Slide Over to read emails and view other apps side-by-side. Need to copy and paste details from Notes into an email? Split View is perfect. (Though you could do that with Slide Over, too.)

Picture in Picture

For those times when you have to get work done but your parents really want to have a FaceTime conversation, Picture in Picture is a great new way to multitask. You can move the picture around and resize it, so it doesn’t block the email you’re trying to read (or write), but it always remains the top window. iOS 9 hasn’t dramatically change the Mail app at its core, but little tweaks and system-wide multitasking tools make email slightly less awful to manage.