How to Turn Off “Follow Up” Mail Suggestions on iPhone & iPad
The Mail app on iPhone and iPad has been around since the beginning of those devices, and many people have grown familiar with how the Mail app works and behaves. But recently, Apple has been making a lot of tweaks and adjustments to the Mail app, and some of these changes are not necessarily welcome by the user, or they can lead to confusion. One such example that is causing some frustration is the “Follow Up” suggestions feature on Mail for iPhone and iPad, which resurface emails that have not yet received a reply, nudging you to send a follow up email. The most common complaint about this feature is that it leads to the impression that the email thread has been updated and the email has received a reply, which then is loaded only to discover there is no new reply in the email thread, which has caused some users to think the Mail app is not properly displaying new emails or showing replies.
To stop old emails from showing up at the top of your Mail inbox on iPhone or iPad with the “Follow Up” badge, you can disable the Follow Up Suggestions feature.
Turning off Follow Up Suggestions will make your Mail inbox on iPhone or iPad behave like it did forever prior to the introduction of that feature, without old emails appearing at the top of your inbox. This is one of various recent changes that have frustrated many users, and if you’re annoyed by this you also might be interested in turning off Mail Categories on iPhone and disabling Mail sender Contact photos so that you can return your Mail app to the expected behavior and appearance.
How to Disable Follow Up Suggestions on Mail for iPhone & iPad
This is a simple settings tweak:
- Open the Settings app on iPhone or iPad
- Go to Apps and then choose “Mail”
- Locate the toggle for “Follow Up Suggestions” and turn this to the OFF position
- Return to the Mail app to see the immediate change
Now old emails that you have sent previously but have not received replies will no longer appear at the top of your email inbox on iPhone or iPad Mail app.
If you’re also a Mac user, you can disable Follow Up Mail Suggestions on Mac too which you also might appreciate.
Some users might appreciate the Follow Up feature and wish to keep it enabled (it is enabled by default), or if they turn it off, they might want to turn it back on again which is easy to do with the simple settings toggle. Whether or not you like these type of features can depend on many factors, but customizing the Mail app to your usage patterns is helpful, and if you don’t find some of these new features like Follow Up Suggestions, Mail Categories, and Mail Contact photos to be useful, than disabling them and returning to the more traditional Mail app functionality can be an easy remedy to your workflow troubles with email.
What do you think of the Follow Up Suggestions feature in Mail for iPhone or iPad? Do you use this feature and find it to be helpful, or are you bothered by it? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
