Adding HTML Email Signatures to the Native iPhone Email App

This blog post is a bit of an outsider when compared to our regular article topics, but I wrote it because I feel that it can be incredibly useful for those who do not need central control over email signatures, but still need a nice email signature when using the iPhone email app. The Xink platform makes centralized email signature management a breeze of course, but we have the individual’s needs in mind as well at Xink. Adding an email signature with a logo to the native iPhone email app can be really tricky to do, but it is possible. And we have found that for many of our clients, this is exactly what they’re seeking. Let me walk you through the process so that your signatures sent from your native iPhone email app look as professional as those sent from your desktop.

1. Send Your Email Signature to Your iPhone

To get started you need to have your email signature sent to your iPhone. Of course, to do this, you should already have your email signature designed, including any logos that may apply. Once your signature is complete, you can then send it to your phone. How you design an effective signature is not really the topic of this blog post, but one idea is to choose from among the many templates we provide through Xink. You can then add your details so that it looks nice and personalized. You can also have an email signature designed in Apple Mail, and then use this program to send the email to your iPhone. Once sent, use the native iPhone email app to both see and install the email on your device. Below, we illustrate how you can use Outlook 2013 to send the email to yourself and open it in your native iPhone email app. Sending the Email Signature with Outlook for Mac Note that you should send this email to your iPhone only from a Mac computer by using either Outlook for Mac or the built-in email app for Mac OS. Sending the email from Outlook for Windows will often destroy the underlying html and images so that the trick does not work. This is why I have used a screenshot from Mac.

2. Open Your Email Using Your iPhone and Copy the Email Signature

Now open your email using your device’s native iPhone email app. The email should look something like this: Receiving the Email Signature in the iPhone Email App Now you need to copy your email signature. Select some text in the email signature, but nothing that can be clicked. If you do this, you will be unable to select and expand the selection range. I would start by selecting the word “anything” in the signature (see the last word of the sentence in the above sample image); you can then expand it to include the whole email signature, like this: Copying the Email Signature in the iPhone Email App Once selected, click “Copy” to send everything to the clipboard.

3. Paste Your Email Signature into the Signature Field in ‘Settings’

Now paste the email signature from your clipboard into the signature field in Settings. To do so, go to Settings->Email->Accounts->Signature. The Signature Field Under the iPhone’s Settings You can choose to apply it to all accounts if you have more than one account set up, or to just a single account if you only have a personal email account set up. If you want to apply a different signature for different accounts, simply repeat the steps in this guide for each. Now tap the signature field. In all likelihood, you have “Sent from my iPhone” or “Sent” set as your default signature. Once you’ve selected everything, simply delete it and paste in your new signature. Selecting All Accounts Under the Signature Setting And voilá, there you go! You have now saved your email signature, with your logo, to your native iPhone email app. You can finally send emails from your iPhone with a neat campaign attached to them, and not simply “Sent from my iPhone.”

4. Adjust Your Email Signature as Needed and Use It

It is very likely that the email signature will not look exactly as you have intended it to. Blame Apple for this, not us! However, you can use the cursor to adjust text here and there. Remember that this editor is in no way a designer (not even close!) so you will not be able to fully express your creativity through this setting. For that you should redo the signature using a third-party app, send it to yourself again, and do the same trick. Now when you press the new email icon in your native iPhone email app, you will see your neat new signature. Nobody will know that you are sending this from your iPhone (and no one cares anyway about which device you send the email from). Your recipients will be focused on what matters: the email content and your neat new email signature.

5. Alternatively, You Can Use the Email Rerouting App from Xink!

The hack outlined above is a good option for companies with just one or two iPhones. But obviously this solution is far from ideal if you want to update your signature every other day or week. Additionally, for this process to work, the email must be sent from Mac and not Outlook for Windows. Why? Because Outlook embeds the image, which makes it show up as a red X in your inbox. To work, the email must be composed in Mac (Outlook or Apple Mail). Finally, it’s also worth noting that even if completed successfully, the font will likely end up being displayed as Times New Roman. Clearly, this hack may work for some, but it’s far from a perfect solution. So what if you want your signature displayed exactly as you’ve designed it? What if you want to amend and update your signature often? Is there a way to do this in the native iPhone email app? Yes. For this purpose you can use the upcoming Xink Email Rerouting app (to be used for Office 365 to begin with). We encourage you to read more about this email reroute option in our blog post, “Email Rerouting Solution to be Launched by Xink.” Enjoy emailing from your iPhone email app!