Image: Apple

iOS 16, announced at WWDC ‘22, included a lot of new features, including some highly anticipated productivity features around communication in iOS.

Three of those features revolve around the Mail app and are much-requested, including the ability to schedule emails, cancel emails from being sent after you’ve pressed send and follow up later to emails you’ve already received. Let’s take a look at how these features work and how you can incorporate them into your productivity workflow.

How to use the iOS 16 Mail features to boost productivity

Remind Me Later

One of the new features in Mail that many users who receive a lot of email will appreciate is the ability to flag messages to be reminded later. This will cause the message to be presented to you at a later time when you can actually read it. This is great for work emails that can often come in at different times throughout the day but need to be worked on at a particular time.

Figure A

Slide an email from left to right to display the “Remind Me Later” feature in iOS 16 Mail.

To use this feature, swipe from left to right on an email in the inbox, then select the Later option to specify a time. By default, 1 Hour, Tonight and Tomorrow are featured, but if you want more granular control over the reminder time, select Remind Me Later and then you’ll be able to pick a specific date and time to be reminded about the email.

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Send Later

Perhaps one of the most anticipated features of iOS 16 Mail is the ability to schedule emails to be sent at a later time. This is great for when you’re writing emails late at night but don’t wish to send them until the morning. Mail can now accommodate this when composing an email on both iPhone and iPad.

Figure B

To send a message later, press and hold on the send button to get the options.

Compose your message as you normally would, but when you want to send the message at a later time, simply press and hold on the send button to get the send later options. It will offer up some options based on your previous send later times, or you can tap Send Later to specify an exact date and time that you would like the email to be sent from your device.

Undo Send

Undo Send is a neat feature that Apple has added to both Mail and the Messages app for when you wish to cancel an email from being sent after you’ve already tapped the send button. Note that you will only have 10 seconds to cancel before the message is actually sent; this feature will not recall an email that has already been sent.

Figure C

The Undo Send option appears at the bottom of the Mail app for 10 seconds. Tapping it will cancel the message from being sent.

To use this feature, after sending an email, you will see an Undo Send button in the toolbar at the bottom of the Mail app. Tapping this button will cancel the message from being sent and will display the message in the editor again so you can easily tweak the message and try sending it again. However, the Undo Send option will only be available for 10 seconds before the message has been sent.

Note these tips in this article relate to iOS 16, currently in beta. iOS 16 will be released to the public as a beta in July 2022, and in final product form in Fall 2022.

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