I'm so annoyed by these 10 things in Apple Mail

After 20 years, Apple has not managed to get rid of annoying factors in the app.

- BY CHRISTIAN RENTROP

Apple Mail is a decent alternative to Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Spark, and all the other email clients available for the Mac.

But even though Apple has been delivering its in-house mail client for years and regularly updates it, it doesn't come without criticisms—it could be a much better email client if it weren't for these annoyances.

HALFHEARTED AI IMPLEMENTATION

Since macOS 15.4 and iOS 18.4, Apple Intelligence has been an integral part of the operating system and also of Apple Mail, but it can still only tinker with email texts—summaries, smart replies, writing tools, and a bit more. There is enormous potential for AI features, especially in email management and spam detection.

Instead of relying on real artificial intelligence, Apple Mail continues to rely on so-called “intelligent” folders for organization and spam detection. That is not enough.

CATASTROPHIC SPAM DETECTION

Because Apple does not currently rely on AI for this and has apparently not made any improvements to the algorithms for “intelligent” spam detection for years, Apple Mail’s filter function is disastrous. It practically doesn’t work at all on the iPhone and iPad, and on the Mac, the results are hit and miss.

Longtime Apple Mail users know the problem: The same annoying spam messages that have been moved to the spam folder countless times end up in the inbox again and again. At the same time, important emails disappear into the spam folder for completely obscure reasons. This is particularly annoying when it comes to really important messages, like bills that are due.

SMART MAILBOXES ARE NOT SMART