iOS 26’s Liquid Glass and Apple Mail: What marketers need to know

Apple has rolled out iOS 26, and one of the standout updates is the new Liquid Glass design language. This design shift brings translucent layers, softer surfaces, and glossy navigation bars across the system. It’s a clear visual refresh that makes Apple’s interface look sharper and more modern.

But if you’re an email marketer, the real story isn’t just about design. The biggest changes that affect your work are the Apple Mail features introduced back in iOS 18 and 18.2. categories, digest view, and AI-powered summaries continue to shape how recipients view and interact with emails on Apple devices. Since Apple Mail accounts for nearly half of all global opens, knowing how these features influence engagement is essential. With iOS 26, the environment looks different, but the same Mail behaviors still determine visibility and performance.

(Source: Image from Apple)

Key takeaways

1. Liquid Glass refreshes Apple’s interface, but email rendering stays the same.
2. Categories, digests, and AI summaries redefine visibility and engagement in Apple Mail.
3. Subject lines, preview text, and above-the-fold design now act as micro-conversions.
4. BIMI and Apple Branded Mail strengthen trust and brand recognition in inboxes.
5. Stripo supports iOS-ready design with previews, reusable modules, and brand kits.

What Liquid Glass brings to the table

Liquid Glass is Apple’s new design system that adds translucent, layered navigation bars and controls across iOS 26. It creates a sense of depth and polish when switching between apps or scrolling through menus. For Apple Mail, this translates into a refreshed interface, toolbars, and navigation that now reflect the updated visual style.

It’s important to clarify that this update does not change how emails are rendered inside the message body. Apple Mail continues to display HTML emails the same way as before. The Liquid Glass material only affects the surrounding app chrome, not the email canvas itself.

For marketers, the takeaway is straightforward: continue running readability and accessibility tests on emails. Pay close attention to font contrast, CTA visibility, and how designs adapt in light and dark mode. Even though Liquid Glass doesn’t alter rendering, ensuring that emails remain clear and accessible across devices is still a must.

The bigger shift: How Apple Mail handles email (since iOS 18)

Categories and tabs

Apple Mail sorts incoming messages into four categories: Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. Messages in the Primary category appear as usual, but the other three can collapse into a digest view that groups emails by sender. This means your latest campaign may not appear as a standalone message — it can be stacked with others from the same domain.

(Source: Image from Drip)

Recipients also have the ability to re-categorize senders, moving a brand’s emails into a different category. While this doesn’t affect deliverability on the server side, it directly impacts placement and visibility inside Mail. For marketers, this makes it critical to watch frequency and relevance, since multiple emails may end up compressed in one digest.

Digest view (grouped by sender)

When a recipient opens Transactions, Updates, or Promotions, Mail displays a digest of recent messages from that sender. The newest email appears at the top, but previous ones remain visible below. This layout changes how subscribers scan content: they see a stack of emails at once instead of just the latest campaign.

The implication is clear — subject lines and above-the-fold design matter more than ever. The top section of your email needs to deliver immediate value, because that’s what subscribers notice first in a digest. Sending too many repetitive emails can also make a brand look cluttered, reducing the chance of clicks.

AI summaries and the “Summarize” feature

Apple Intelligence adds another filter. Short AI-generated summaries appear under each email in the inbox. Inside the message view, recipients can tap “Summarize” to get a condensed version of the content. In practice, this means subscribers may scan Apple’s interpretation of your email before looking at your actual design.

(Source: Image from iDownloadBlog)

To keep summaries accurate, write content that is structured, factual, and easy to scan. Clear headings, bullet points, and straightforward language improve the way Apple’s AI presents your message in the inbox.

Branded logos in the inbox

Apple Mail also highlights brand identity directly in the inbox. There are two ways to display your logo:

• BIMI: Available in Apple Mail since iOS 16/macOS Ventura. It requires DMARC enforcement and a BIMI Evidence Document (often a VMC) issued by a trusted authority;
• Apple Branded Mail: Managed through Apple Business Connect, where companies can apply to display their logo and brand name. Apple reviews and approves submissions before they go live.

Both options increase trust and recognition in an inbox where summaries and digests dominate. Setting up Branded Mail through Apple Business Connect can take a few days, so it’s worth planning in advance if you want your brand identity visible across all Apple clients.

Why this matters for marketers

Apple Mail continues to dominate email client share, accounting for about 49% of global opens. With such a large share, the way Apple structures its inbox directly influences campaign performance.

The key change is that the first impression often happens outside the actual design. Subscribers may first see your campaign in a digest preview or AI-generated summary, rather than in the full email. That means subject lines and preview text now act as micro-conversions that decide whether the recipient will open and engage.

Sending frequency also matters more. When too many emails are delivered in a short time, they risk being compressed together in a digest, reducing visibility. Finally, brand logos displayed through BIMI or Apple Branded Mail now serve as trust anchors, reassuring recipients before they read a single line.

With Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) still masking opens, marketers need to rethink engagement metrics. Digests and summaries reshape what it means to have an “engaged view.”

What you should do right now

Here’s a quick checklist for adapting campaigns to Apple’s Mail environment:

1. Audit subject lines and preview text. Keep them unique, relevant, and value-led. Repetition lowers visibility in digests.
2. Design for above-the-fold visibility. Assume recipients may only glance at the top part of your email before deciding to read further.
3. Structure copy for AI summaries. Use clear headings, factual phrasing, and short bullet points to improve the quality of Apple’s generated previews.
4. Implement authentication. Set up DMARC, SPF, and DKIM. This enables BIMI; separately, register your domain in Apple Business Connect to activate Branded Mail.
5. Shift measurement focus. Treat opens as unreliable. Track clicks, conversions, and run holdout tests for reliable performance insights.
6. QA emails on iOS 26 devices. Test contrast, readability, and how campaigns appear in digest previews before sending at scale.

What this means for Stripo users

Stripo already has the tools you need to stay ahead of Apple Mail’s changes. With mobile design previews, you can optimize layouts for iOS viewports and see exactly how campaigns appear on Apple devices. Reusable blocks and modules make it simple to build layouts that remain clear and effective, even when stacked in digests. Brand kits keep your colors, fonts, and logos consistent across emails, supporting the trust-building benefits of BIMI or Apple Branded Mail.

You can also run testing exports to send trial campaigns to iOS 26 devices and verify readability in both summaries and digest views. While the technical setup for BIMI and Apple Branded Mail happens outside Stripo, our editor helps you deliver design consistency that makes these features more effective.

Soon we’ll show you how to create Liquid Glass-inspired visuals in Stripo, adapt them for mobile devices (with a focus on iOS), and handle the specifics of sending to Apple Mail.

Wrapping up

iOS 26’s Liquid Glass brings a visual refresh, but for marketers the real priority is Apple Mail’s message handling rules introduced earlier. Campaigns are now judged on how they appear in categories, digest stacks, and AI-generated summaries rather than just in the full design. This changes the mechanics of visibility: the top lines of your email, authentication for brand logos, and frequency of sends directly influence whether subscribers notice and trust your campaigns.

Marketers should adapt measurement strategies as well. With Mail Privacy Protection still in place, opens remain unreliable, making clicks, conversions, and holdout testing more meaningful. Using Stripo’s mobile previews, reusable modules, and brand kits, you can build and test emails that hold up under Apple’s new rules. This ensures campaigns stay both recognizable and effective in an inbox where Apple controls more of the reading experience.