Apple recently launched an upgrade to their Mail application on mobile platforms, introducing smart categories to help users declutter their inbox and find relevant content more easily. However, this feature wasn’t initially available on Mac computers.
But this is set to change. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his PowerOn newsletter, Apple’s mail categories will soon be introduced to the desktop version, anticipated to roll out this April.
The introduction of this feature is expected to come with the macOS 15.4 update. With the third beta of macOS 15.3 having been released recently, it is predicted that the test build of macOS 15.4 is a few weeks away.
The categorization feature works by sorting all your emails into four main groups: ‘Primary’ for personal and time-sensitive communications, ‘Promotions’ for sales and deals, ‘Updates’ for news and social content, and ‘Transactions’ for shopping-related notifications.
Users can adjust the email category for any sender in their inbox if they find it useful. If the categorization system is not working as expected, users can switch it off by simply reverting back to the classic List view.
Apple’s Intelligence has already been incorporated into the Mac platform, including in the Mail app. Some of the AI-powered features already available include Smart Reply, Priority Messages, email summarization, and summary previews.
Writing Tools, another feature powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT stack, allows users to compose, refine, rewrite, proofread, and reorganize text content.
The email categorization system, however, has received mixed feedback. While it helps to keep the inbox organized and important conversations easily accessible, some users find it complicates their digital routines, with emails often mis-categorized.
As reported by Bryan M. Wolfe from Digital Trends, after upgrading to iOS 18.2 and encountering the new Mail Categories feature, he found it complicated his digital life, with many emails ending up in incorrect categories.
Moreover, the system lacks flexibility, with no option to create a fifth or additional unique category for emails. As per the Bloomberg report, Apple still has some time to address this feedback and resolve any issues before introducing categories to the Mail app on Macs.
