Apple iOS18 is here: What email senders need to know

A new version of Apple's mobile operating system has been released! This latest edition, iOS18 (18.0), was released on Monday, September 16th. Like many of you, I was quick to install it on my phone, though at first I've only installed it on a backup device, my trusty iPhone 12 mini.

And then, after installation, I realized, there's not much new to show off in Apple Mail, just yet. Oops.

But we can take a moment to review everything that is coming soon, including the "Apple Intelligence" A.I. engine. And that "everything" includes:

• Better support for BIMI Logos, we think. In Apple's demonstrations, BIMI logos appeared now to show in the inbox list or category view. Previously BIMI logos showed only when you've opened a message in Apple Mail. (Note that Apple's BIMI support requires that a sender purchase and implement a Verified Mark Certificate aka VMC.)
• Categorization: The on-device "Apple Intelligence" will decide the category your message should be labeled with. Think of this to be much like Gmail tabs. Categories: Primary, Transactions, Updates, Promotions. More on that here.
• What about A.I. bugs in beta? Oops. The beta version of Apple Intelligence appeared to be deciding which messages are important based on content only, and it was able to be fooled by phishing messages. One assumes that the non-beta version will address this by excluding messages that fail security, authentication or spam filter checks.
• Bye bye, pre-headers. A.I. appears to be replacing preheader/preview content with an A.I.-generated summary of email messages. Does this mean the end of pre-headers? Quite possibly. More on that here.
• Anything else? A.I.-driven smart replies are coming, along with support with Apple's new Writing Tools framework. Read about that all here.

Stay tuned. Though not all of these features have actually landed on Apple devices just yet, Apple has promised them as part of the iOS 18 rollout, and are likely to land with iOS 18.1 in October.