Email finally wakes up to responsive design

Ben Moss.
September 15, 2016
Email finally wakes up to responsive design.

Email is far older than the web; introduced in 1972, anyone who’s ever tried designing for email can be forgiven for assuming that it hasn’t had an update since. It’s still routine for layout in email to be controlled with HTML tables, mention flexbox support to an email designer and watch them roll around laughing. That’s all about to change, because Google, purveyor of some of the internet’s favorite email clients has just announced a major update that will finally enable responsive email design. The update affects several distinct email clients, all powered by Gmail, covering the web, desktop, Android, and iOS. What’s actually being introduced is twofold: firstly, Gmail’s clients will now support CSS media queries; secondly, Gmail’s clients will now support external style sheets. [pullquote]Gmail’s clients will now support CSS media queries[/pullquote] Not all media queries will be supported. Google have consulted with a range of email designers and settled on three key media queries: width, rotation, and resolution. These were selected based on their value in aiding responsive design. Helpfully, Google have provided full support details in their Gmail documentation. The huge impact that media queries will inevitably have, has slightly overshadowed the other significant introduction, which is external style sheets. What this means is that CSS styles no longer need to be inline, significantly reducing the size of the email you send. [pullquote]CSS styles no longer need to be inline[/pullquote] The change has been on Google’s wish-list for several years, but it’s been pressed to make the change in order to remain dominant in the market; there are some excellent alternatives to Gmail such as Polymail, and the rapid rise of Slack has revolutionized business communication. Google are not the first to adopt CSS media queries for their email clients, and there are still some significant email clients that do not support them. However, Gmail’s prior lack of support was judged by many to be the last major stumbling block to responsive email design. Yes, you’ve still got Outlook to contend with — an experience so poor, you’d think Microsoft were big stakeholders in a proprietry messaging app. But similarly, there are still people browsing the web in IE6. Progressive enhancement allows us to use modern techniques on the web without alienating luddites, and the same applies to email. There’s nothing to say that non-responsive email clients can’t use plain text. Given the number of emails that are opened on mobile — last year it was reported that two thirds of all emails received in the US were opened on mobile devices — this advance couldn’t come soon enough. The responsive update to Gmail clients will roll out worldwide by the end of the month.

Ben Moss

Ben Moss is Senior Editor at WebdesignerDepot. He’s designed and coded work for award-winning startups, and global names including IBM, UBS, and the FBI. One of these days he’ll run a sub-4hr marathon. Say hi on Twitter.

Read Next

3 Essential Design Trends, June 2023

This month we are focusing on three trends within a bigger website design trend – different navigation menu styles and …

15 Best New Fonts, May 2023

The choices you make when selecting a typeface have more impact on your design than almost any other decision, so it’s …

10+ Best Tools & Resources for Web Designers and Agencies (2023 updated)

Having the ability to envision a tastefully designed website (i.e., the role creativity plays) is important. But being …

20 Best New Websites, May 2023

This month, there are tons of great new agency websites to get excited about. 3D animated prisms are a popular theme, a…

How to Find the Right White Label Website Builder for Your Agency

Web design agencies face a lot of obstacles in closing the deal with new clients. One of the most common ones is the ar…

Exciting New Tools For Designers, May 2023

There are hundreds of new tools for designers and developers released each month. We sift through them all to bring you…

3 Essential Design Trends, May 2023

All three of the website design trends here mimic something bigger going on in the tech space, from a desire to have mo…

10 Best AI Tools for Web Designers (2023)

It’s time to stop worrying if AI is going to take your job and instead start using AI to expand the services you can of…

10 Best Marketing Agency Websites (Examples, Inspo, and Templates!)

Marketers are skilled in developing strategies, producing visual assets, writing text with high impact, and optimizing …

15 Best New Fonts, April 2023

Fonts are a designer’s best friend. They add personality to our designs and enable fine typography to elevate the quali…

20 Best New Websites, April 2023

In April’s edition, there’s a whole heap of large-scale, and even full-screen, video. Drone footage is back with a veng…

Exciting New Tools For Designers, April 2023

The AI revolution is having a huge impact on the types of products that are hitting the market, with almost every app b…