How to Change the Default Mail App on iPhone

If you have spent ten minutes searching through Settings > Mail for a way to swap Apple Mail for Gmail or Outlook, you already know why this guide exists. Apple added the ability to change the default mail app in iOS 14, but buried the setting inside the third-party app's own section in Settings rather than in the Mail section where almost everyone looks first. This guide gives you the exact path, explains what actually changes when you make the switch, and covers the most common reasons the option disappears or refuses to stay.

Apple has supported changing the default mail app on iPhone since September 2020. If your device runs iOS 13 or older, the option does not exist at all. For everyone else, the whole process takes about ninety seconds once you know where to look.

The short answer#

Open Settings on your iPhone. Do not tap the Mail section near the top. Instead, scroll down past all the system settings until you reach the alphabetical list of installed apps, find the mail app you want to use, and tap it. Inside that app's Settings page you will see a row labelled Default Mail App. Tap it, choose your app from the short list that appears, and the change saves immediately.

Once you switch, any mailto link you tap — an email address in Safari, a contact form on a webpage, an address in a PDF — opens in the app you chose rather than Apple Mail. Siri follows the same setting when you ask it to compose an email. The share sheet in apps like Notes and Photos will offer your new default first.

Apple Mail stays installed. The setting does not delete or disable it. You can switch back at any time by repeating the process and choosing Mail from the list.

Before you start#

Apple added default app selection in iOS 14, released in September 2020. On iOS 13 or earlier, the setting simply does not exist — there is no workaround. Any iPhone 6s or newer can run at least iOS 15, so the upgrade path is available to essentially everyone still on a supported device. Check your current version at Settings > General > About.

The third-party app also needs to declare itself as a mail handler. This is something the app developer must explicitly configure when publishing on the App Store. Gmail, Outlook, Spark, Airmail, and Canary Mail all do it reliably. A newer or less widely used app may not, or an older build of an app may predate when the developer added this capability. Updating the app and opening it before checking Settings usually resolves this.

If your iPhone is managed by a school or employer through a Mobile Device Management policy, an administrator may have blocked default-app changes. In that case the Default Mail App row either will not appear or will appear greyed out. You would need to contact the administrator to change this.

• iOS 14 or later is required. Settings > General > About shows your current version.
• Install the app first — it must be on the device before it appears in the selector list.
• Not all email apps register as a mail handler. Gmail, Outlook, Spark, Airmail, and Canary Mail reliably do.
• MDM-managed iPhones may have default-app changes blocked by a device administrator.
• Your iCloud account, iCloud email address, and iCloud sync settings are unaffected by this change.

How to change the default mail app on iPhone#

The steps below apply to iOS 14 and all later versions. The setting name and path are the same regardless of which iOS version you are on within that range.

1. 1

   1. Install your preferred mail app

   If the app is not already on your iPhone, download it from the App Store. Open it and complete any initial setup — account sign-in, notification permissions — so it is in a working state. An app that is installed but has never been launched may not register itself as a mail handler until first open.

2. 2

   2. Open the Settings app

   Tap the grey gear icon on your home screen. This is the main iOS Settings app. Do not open the Mail app itself — the setting lives inside the Settings app, not inside Mail's own preferences.

3. 3

   3. Scroll down to your mail app in the alphabetical list

   Scroll past the top sections — your Apple ID card, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Notifications, and the rest of the system settings — until you reach the area where your installed apps are listed alphabetically. Find your mail app by name: for Gmail scroll to G, for Outlook scroll to O, for Spark scroll to S. Tap the app name to open its Settings page.

4. 4

   4. Tap Default Mail App

   Inside the app's Settings page, look for a row labelled Default Mail App. It is usually near the top of the page. If this row is absent, the app does not currently support being set as the system-wide default. See the troubleshooting section below for what to do next.

5. 5

   5. Select your preferred app

   A short list appears showing every mail app on your device that has registered as a mail handler. Tap the app you want. The selection saves as soon as you tap — there is no additional Save or Done button. The Default Mail App row will now show your chosen app name to confirm the change.

6. 6

   6. Test the change

   Open Safari, navigate to any page with a contact email address, and tap it. Your new default app should open a compose window. Alternatively, ask Siri to write an email — it will use your selected app. If Apple Mail still opens, verify the correct app name appears in the Default Mail App row and confirm your device is running iOS 14 or later.

How this works across iPhone, iPad, and Mac#

The default mail app setting is device-specific. Changing it on your iPhone has no effect on your iPad or Mac, even when all three share the same Apple ID. The same setting path exists on iPad running iPadOS 14 or later and the steps are identical. On Mac the mechanism is entirely different and lives inside the Mail app itself.

The table below covers where the setting is found on each platform, what OS version is required, and what the change actually governs.

What to do when the option is missing or keeps reverting#

Two problems account for nearly every complaint about this setting. Understanding which one applies tells you which fix to try first.

The Default Mail App row is missing entirely from the app's Settings page. This almost always means one of four things: the app is running an older version that predates mail-handler support (install the latest version and open it once), the device is running iOS 13 or earlier (check at Settings > General > About, then update if possible), the device is under MDM management with default-app changes blocked (contact the administrator), or the app was installed but never opened. Open the app, complete any setup, then return to Settings.

The setting saves correctly but reverts to Apple Mail after you restart the phone. This was a documented bug in iOS 14.0 and 14.1. Apple fixed it in iOS 14.2. If your default keeps resetting after a reboot, go to Settings > General > Software Update, install the available update, then set the default again. Once on iOS 14.2 or later the setting persists across restarts.

A less common cause of apparent reversion: if two apps are both registered for mailto and you recently updated or reinstalled one of them, the reinstall can reset the system's internal handler preference even though your Settings choice still shows your app. In that case, open your preferred app's section in Settings and re-select it under Default Mail App.

A faster way to a better inbox#

Changing the default app routes mailto taps to a different client. It does not change what that client does with the inbox once you are inside it. If you are making this switch because you want a client that triages incoming mail, drafts replies without training on your sent mail, and surfaces follow-ups you would otherwise forget, that is a different problem entirely.

We build AI Emaily, an AI-native email client available as a native app on iOS. It connects Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, and any IMAP account into one inbox, triages what actually needs you, and drafts replies using a user-set Context brain rather than by analyzing your sent history. It runs in Manual, Copilot, and Autopilot modes, with an undo trail on every action the agent takes. You can try it for seven days free; if it is not useful, cancel before day seven and pay nothing. See aiemaily.com/pricing for what is included.