In the Mail app on our iPhone or iPad, we can see contact photos and company logos next to the emails we receive. This small detail helps us quickly identify senders, making the inbox more visual and recognisable at a glance. However, some of us might prefer a cleaner look or, if we haven’t set up contact photos, we may choose to disable this option. Let’s see how.
How to enable or disable contact photos in Mail
Asking Mail to show or hide sender images is as simple as tapping the right option in the Settings app. Here’s how we do it:
- We open the Settings app on our iPhone or iPad.
- We scroll to the bottom of the list until we find the Apps section and tap it.
- We go into Mail.
- In the Message List section, we’ll see the option “Show Contact Photos.”
- We simply turn the option on or off, depending on whether we want to see or hide the images.
The change takes effect immediately, so as soon as we return to the Mail app, we’ll notice the difference. If at any point we want to reverse the decision, we just need to repeat the same steps.
Contact photos in Mail: clearer, but optional
The main goal of this feature is to help us identify more quickly who’s sending us an email. In this regard, it’s worth noting that while contact profile images depend on the information we have saved in the Contacts app, things are different when it comes to companies.
Companies can use this system to visually show us that a message comes from a trusted source. This is possible because, in business email addresses, if we haven’t set a profile image ourselves, the company can choose one. Here’s the key: Apple verifies it, so only if it’s a genuine message will we see the logo next to the email.
This doesn’t mean that a legitimate message will always include a profile image, as some companies don’t use this technology, but it might be a reason for us to keep contact photos visible in Mail.
If not, the choice is entirely up to us. Just like we can hide mail categories, with a few simple adjustments we can decide what kind of information we want to see in the inbox of the Mail app on our iPhone or iPad.
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