Everything You Should Know About Mail Categories on Your iPhone

Finding a particular message can be difficult if you get a lot of emails. If you want to check on the status of a package, scrolling through newsletters and random ads can be irksome. Luckily, Apple introduced Categories for the mail app when the tech company released iOS 18.2 in 2025.

“The Mail app automatically sorts your email messages into categories to help you find and manage messages more quickly,” Apple wrote online.

Categories are on by default, but if you don’t like how it works in Mail, no worries. Apple gives you a few options to either ignore Categories or revert your app to look like it did before the iOS 18.2 update. 

Here’s what you need to know about Mail Categories and how to turn the feature off so your app looks like it did before the update.

How Mail Categories work

Mail Categories are similar to categories you would find in other email services, like Gmail. The app filters your emails into one of four categories: Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions.

Emails with receipts, as well as order and delivery information, fill the Transactions category, and news, social and other subscription emails go to Updates. Emails with special offers and deals go to Promotions, as you might imagine.

The Primary category is more difficult to pin down. Apple says in the app that Primary is for “Messages that matter most.” I’ve used the redesigned app since it launched in beta, and during that time my Primary category was filled with emails from my wife, customer service and even refund information. It’s a little bit of a catch-all category.

How to change an email’s category

Categories aren’t perfect so sometimes an email lands where it probably shouldn’t, like an ad in the Transactions category instead of the Promotions. There is a way to change an email’s category for any future messages you might receive from that sender. Here’s how.

1. Tap Mail.
2. Tap the Transactions, Updates or Promotions tab then tap a message.
3. Tap the three dots (…) in the top right corner.
4. Tap Categorize Sender.

Then you can manually categorize messages from a given sender to another category. You can also recategorize an email from Promotions to Deals and then back to Promotions. The only emails that can’t be recategorized are those in Primary — which can be annoying. 

Once, I ordered tickets for a show at a local theater, and the email was filtered to Promotions. I moved the email with those tickets to Primary, but now all emails from that theater — including deals and sales — go to my Primary category. Not being able to change that categorization back is annoying.

How to disable Mail Categories

If you don’t like Mail Categories, you have a few options to see all your mail at once. The easiest way is to swipe the categories bar near the top of Mail to the left to reveal the option All Mail. Swiping left to view this option automatically selects All Mail. Now all your mail will be displayed from top to bottom as each message comes in, but you will still see the Categories tabs across the top of the app. 

You can also remove Categories altogether so the app looks like it did before the update. Here’s how.

1. Tap Mail.
2. Tap the three dots (…) in the top right corner of the app.
3. Tap Show Categories.

Apple/Screenshot by CNET

Now your emails will populate in Mail from top to bottom as they arrive in your inbox. 

For more iOS news, here’s what you should know about iOS 26 as well as iOS 27.

Zachary McAuliffe

Senior writer

Zach began writing for CNET in November, 2021 after writing for a broadcast news station in his hometown, Cincinnati, for five years. You can usually find him hanging out with his wife, son and dog. You can reach him at zmcauliffe@cnet.com.

See full bio

See also  Best Internet Providers in Joliet, Illinois