Responsive email support
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012 by Anna YeamanResponsive emails = fluid grids, fluid media and media queries. The idea being where @media isn’t supported, you can fallback on a fluid layout. As fluid layouts pose issues on some desktop email clients, alternatively you can fallback to a fixed-width mobile template. I tested media queries in our device lab, I’ll update the chart as I add new clients.
| media query support | |
|---|---|
| iPhone native | Yes |
| iPhone Mailbox app | Yes |
| iPhone Gmail app (not native Gmail) | No |
| iPad full-sized native | Yes |
| iPad mini native | Yes |
| iPod Touch native | Yes |
| Android 2.1 Eclair native client | No |
| Android 2.2 Froyo native client | Yes |
| Android 2.3 Gingerbread native client | Yes |
| Android 4.0 Ice Creme Sandwich native client | Yes |
| Android 4.1 Jelly bean native client | Yes |
| Android Outlook Exchange via native client | No |
| Android Outlook.com app | Yes |
| Android Gmail app | No |
| Android Yahoo Mail app 1.4.6 & 2.0 | No |
| Microsoft Surface tablet (outlook.com/hotmail) | Yes |
| Windows Mobile 6.1 | No |
| Windows Phone 7 | No |
| Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) | Yes |
| Windows Phone 8 | ? |
| BlackBerry OS 5 | No |
| BlackBerry OS 7 | Yes |
| BlackBerry Z10 | Yes |
| Palm webOS 4.5 | Yes |
| Original Kindle Fire + HD (New vr. of Silk) native client | Yes |
Platform versions
You need to know how many users are on each platform version to get the full picture. For instance ~96% of Android users are on version 2.2 and up. Which means they’ll get the mobile layout if using the native client. 28% of BlackBerry users are using OS 7 according to this chart.
I can’t find recent Windows Phone stats, though Microsoft has been aggressively pushing 7.5 upgrades. Since May 2012, they’ve been preventing version 7 users from downloading apps from the Marketplace. The post also states, “Most phones are already running Windows Phone 7.5″.
While there are grey areas - like how many Gmail app users we have - iOS, BB and Android all support responsive email design in their latest platform versions.
Update: we’ve had mixed reports on WP8 support, while we own a WP7 and WP7.5 we don’t have a WP8 phone so haven’t been able to confirm this ourselves. Anyone running WP8 let me know…cheers!