Talk:Apple Mail

OS X category
Please do not add the "OS X" only category to this article as the article itself plainly shows why doing so would be inappropriate. Previous versions of Mail.app existed on NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP, so Mail not only runs on OS X but on NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP also. The argument that because OS X is related to NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP the category is appropriate is incorrect -- NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP were never created with Mac OS in mind -- Mac OS X was adapted from OPENSTEP and Rhapsody, not the other way around. Dysprosia 05:35, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
 * It doesn't even matter -- Mac OS X Mail started at 1.0. It is a new product. --Steven Fisher 06:09, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
 * It does matter. Just because there's a different version number doesn't mean you can deny that Mail.app is derived from the Mail application in NS/OS -- the article makes this clear. Saying that since Mail.app in OS X is somehow different to Mail.app elsewhere and so deserves to be considered "OS X only" makes very little sense. Dysprosia 08:15, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't think the old article supported the NeXT heritage well. Your latest changes resolve my issue with that, though. Good work. Although now we have NeXTSTEP and NEXTSTEP links within a few lines; I'm unsure which to go with. Can you fix that up? --Steven Fisher 15:53, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Didn't v1 support HTML?
Didn't Mail v1 support HTML? It's listed here as a new feature in v2.


 * It appears the option to change the outgoing message format existed by version 1.3.3
 * http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=151470
 * The choices are not explictly metioned however apple documentation on new features with v2 does not include HTML messaging.
 * Looks like the choice of RTF vs. plain text for sending goes back at least to the first release os x version.
 * http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106189
 * That however would not mean HTML support was also present. I will investigate further before updating the article.
 * --Reeves87gmailcom 19:11, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
 * After searching on google and apples documentation the only item of HTML specific support I could find was the "Add Hyperlink..." option introduced in v2. Unless someone knows otherwise I would say previous versions could not compose HTML. Apple did however change the rendering engine for incoming HTML messages about version 1.3.3 perhaps this is what you were thinking of.
 * --Reeves87gmailcom 20:13, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Version history
I would like to see a version history similar to what is setup for iSync. Reeves87gmailcom 19:53, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Mail Icon.png
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Mail.app History
Here is a good appleinsider article that traces Mail.app's history and includes many screen shots. Maybe this could be added to the external links section. It would be nice if the NeXT versions were added to the version history. More dates would also be nice. For instance, when was the 1st version released? I believe Mail.app goes back to 1988 with the early releases of NEXTSTEP. I don't think we need to have a separate article for NeXTMail. NeXTMail and Mail.app are the same program. Come to think, NeXTMail should be added to the "aka" at the top of the article. --Coremont (talk) 18:58, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

DB Format
We need to note the recent mail database format change. Anyone have details on what changed? --Elvey (talk) 15:57, 31 July 2010 (UTC)

title
Why is the main title "Mail (application)" and not "Mail (software)" by Wikipedia convention? 83.25.123.168 (talk) 14:32, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Source Code
I would like to access the source code of this particular piece of software, please add a link in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.56.87.208 (talk) 16:18, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

PGP encryption?
No mention of it in the article, is it supported at all? Richiez (talk) 23:36, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Only through third-party plugins, like https://gpgtools.org/.--Totie (talk) 04:17, 21 June 2015 (UTC)

Requested move 2 May 2015

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Moved to Mail (OS X). When I moved the page, I started from the Windows side, by moving Mail (Microsoft application) to Mail (Windows). But then, I realized this discussion exists. Further investigation shows that what I did was not in fact a disruption (unwitting) of this discussion; according to Requested moves/Closing instructions, I actually am qualified to close this discussion based on existing predominant scheme that demonstrate consensus. Before this closure, there has been several pages titled Disk Defragmenter (Windows), Chess (OS X), DVD Player (Mac OS), DVD Player (Windows), Contacts (Mac OS), Preview (Mac OS), and so on. Of course, I am open to review by another qualified editor. Codename Lisa (talk) 22:06, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

Mail (application) → Mail (Apple Inc. application) – There is another page called Mail (Microsoft application) (which I created). Apple's Mail application does not have Primary topic over Microsoft's Mail application. There are also several other "Mail applications" published by different companies.  CookieMonster755   (talk)   05:25, 2 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Support per nom, though I would prefer "Mail (Apple application)" since it's more concise. Calidum T&#124;C 16:32, 2 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I think we would not need to include Inc here since I doubt that anyone seeing the term Apple application would think it had anything to do with the fruit. it's the same reason that the article about Georiga in the U.S. civil war does not use Georgia (state) since the country of the same name had no connection to that war.--76.65.42.220 (talk) 17:11, 2 May 2015 (UTC)
 * It would be necessary to add "Inc." to separate it from applications in the Apple ecosystems named "Mail" not from Apple itself. -- 65.94.43.89 (talk) 01:00, 3 May 2015 (UTC)
 * No, the "Inc." is not needed. "Apple" is sufficient. The other apps can be disambiguated using the company that produced the software. And besides, I think the "Apple ecosystem" is better meant as "OS X ecosystem" or "iOS ecosystem". —seav (talk) 15:13, 3 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Support there are many programs/applications named "mail" -- 65.94.43.89 (talk) 01:00, 3 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Support, but to Mail (Apple application). —seav (talk) 15:13, 3 May 2015 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Russian link
Not sure why but for some reason the external link is to the Russian site. Sincerely, --86.81.201.94 (talk) 20:24, 22 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Fixed. The second infobox (for iOS Mail) was auto-populating the blank "website" field with wikidata grabbed from www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q212211 — not only the wrong software (OS X Mail) but also out-of-date and in the wrong language, due to the wikidata having been imported from Russian Wikipedia by a bot a couple years ago. Since Apple apparently has no official page for iOS Mail, setting "website" to "hide" in that infobox has suppressed the display of the irrelevant URL.  I've also updated the official website URL in the wikidata for OS X Mail to match the URL listed in the first infobox. Thanks for drawing attention to the problem. Cheers, AtticusX (talk) 08:03, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

Version history
The History section has no version numbers. I will try to find them and add them. 108.26.217.72 (talk) 16:34, 7 June 2017 (UTC)

Requested move 11 June 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: page moved. (non-admin closure) Steel1943  (talk) 02:41, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

Mail (Apple) → Apple Mail – for simplify and easier to read and linking, better naming like the GNOME applications. Also, currently in 3 other Wikipedia, its title is "Apple Mail":

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q212211#sitelinks-wikipedia

Editor-1 (talk) 14:20, 11 June 2019 (UTC)


 * Support per WP:COMMONNAME. “Apple Mail” flows much better than “Mail (Apple)”. --Comment by  Selfie City  ( talk about my  contributions ) 00:16, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Support - It sounds more recognizable. Barca (talk) 14:10, 12 June 2019 (UTC)
 *  Oppose Support - The name of the application is Mail, I also reject the notion that "Apple Mail" is the common name. When it comes to linking,  links to the page as Mail. Not sure what the person above is referencing with regards to it being difficult to link to. GeekInParadise (talk) 21:53, 13 June 2019 (UTC) EDIT:  After hearing others opinion, I agree that the name change seems logical.  GeekInParadise (talk) 23:05, 16 June 2019 (UTC)


 * per lead section "Mail (also known as Apple Mail or Mail.app)", thanks for the tip, I didn't know adding a pipe (|) avoids brackets, and most users don't know too! so a more simple and straightforward title makes an improvement. Editor-1 (talk) 03:09, 14 June 2019 (UTC)


 * Support as natural disambiguation, which is preferred. The name "Apple Mail" has been used by The Verge, Engadget , TechRepublic , Bloomberg News , and other reliable sources. —  Newslinger  talk   11:15, 16 June 2019 (UTC)
 * If it was moved to Apple Mail, I think it's important to clarify that the official name of the app is "Mail" at the very beginning of the article, and still say "Mail" in the infobox since that's the name of the application. Having other wikipedia articles share a similar name seems to make this a more logical move. Not sure how I missed User talk:Editor-1's point on that. The reason i'm not totally on board with the change is that Apple has had multiple mail services (mobile me, iCloud mail, etc.) and not entirely sure that titling it "Apple Mail" is appropriate. It's hard to decide about a name since the only similar page I could find was Calendar (Apple), which used to be called iCal, and is often called "iCal" in the wikipedia page. If nobody else shows an opinion other than "Support", i'll recant my vote of "Oppose. GeekInParadise (talk) 22:25, 16 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Using "Mail" in the infobox and first sentence sounds reasonable, since Apple doesn't call the application "Apple Mail". We don't have consistent naming conventions for applications that are bundled with operating systems (e.g. Apple Help Viewer vs. Preview (macOS), and Windows Calculator vs. Control Panel (Windows)). I prefer "Apple Mail" for the article title in this case, since the name's use in reliable sources makes it eligible for natural disambiguation. You certainly don't have to retract your !vote, since your perspective is also very important. —  Newslinger  talk   22:40, 16 June 2019 (UTC)
 * I didn't see the reasoning behind the name change but now I do. I'm all aboard the name change now. Last thing I wanted to clarify: I can't recon where, but I saw somewhere on the the Wikipedia namespace that name changes shouldn't be for minor/trivial things and just curious if this falls under that. Otherwise, i'm all aboard the name change.
 * I agree with Newslinger here. --Comment by  Selfie City  ( talk about my  contributions ) 22:45, 16 June 2019 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Compatibility list
Wouldn't it be useful to have a compatibility list for Mail like it is available for History of iTunes? And is there an overview about compatibility between macOS versions and major Apple applications? I remember to have seen such a table but cannot find it anymore. Thanks. 87.239.204.204 (talk) 16:32, 24 July 2019 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 10:38, 25 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Finder icon macOS Yosemite.png

Big Sur New Mail Icon
with macOS Big Sur, a lot of icons were redisigned to look more like iOS, but with more shadow and a more "3D" effect. The old mail icon was not spared. could somebody update this? I can't find a big icon on apple's site. -1ctinus📝 🗨  20:51, 4 August 2021 (UTC)