A discreet change… but a strategic one for your email campaigns
📧 With iOS 18, Apple’s Mail app now incorporates an AI-generated automatic email summary system that partially replaces the preheader in some inbox views.
This subtle change reflects a broader trend: increasing intermediation between marketing content and the end user.
The AI summary: how does it work?
On compatible devices, Apple Mail no longer just displays the first few lines of a message. Instead, it generates a contextual summary meant to capture the essence of the content.
Unlike a preheader, this summary is automatically produced by AI, which decides what deserves to be shown.
What does this mean for your email campaigns?
1. Limited control over the content displayed
The summary generated may omit elements that you would have liked to highlight. If the information is poorly structured or diluted, it may not appear.
👉 The message shown in the inbox now depends not only on the subject line and preheader but also on the AI’s ability to understand (and rewrite) the content.
2. Adapting your email to a new target: AI
AI relies exclusively on actual text content. Text embedded in images, uncaptioned visuals, or complex formatting risk being ignored. This reinforces a known principle:
🎯 Anything not machine-readable will not be understood or displayed.
3. More pressure on the top of the message
Users tend to scan rather than read fully. AI extracts the first available information, making the beginning of the email an ultra-strategic zone where the overall message meaning is determined.
👉 All essential info (offer, benefit, call to action) must be clearly formulated and placed high in the HTML code.
4. Towards a new performance analysis grid
If the summary becomes a variable, click-through rates can vary independently from the actual content. A poorly generated summary equals fewer opens and less conversion opportunity.
👉 This makes it necessary to take a more nuanced view of the KPIs, and may encourage you to test variations in content structure or hierarchy.
Best practice
✔️ Prioritise text content in HTML – not just images.
✔️ Structure the email with clear headings, sub-headings and paragraphs.
✔️ Place the most important information at the top of the message, so that it can be read immediately.
✔️ Continue to take care with the subject line and pre-header, which are visible in other environments.
For advertisers, this means one thing:
âś… Improving legibility, coherence, and hierarchy of information becomes essential for performance.
At R-Advertising, we design clear, structured email kits to ensure your message is visible and understood — no matter the reading environment.