Apple wants to make it easier to use Mail on the iPhone

Apple wants to make it easier to use Mail on an iPhone. The tech giant has filed for a patent (number 20210342535) for “Mail Application Features.”

About the patent filing

In the patent filing, Apple notes that users use email programs to manage email tasks, including drafting new emails, responding to received emails, deleting emails, and flagging important emails. Electronic devices provide mail application features to facilitate these tasks. 

Apple says that, however, some techniques for providing mail application features using electronic devices are generally cumbersome and inefficient. For example, some existing techniques use a complex and time-consuming user interface, which may include multiple key presses or keystrokes. 

Apple says existing techniques require more time than necessary, wasting user time and device energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices. 

Apple’s patent filing is designed to provide electronic devices such as the iPhone with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for providing mail application features. Such methods and interfaces optionally complement or replace other methods for providing mail application features. 

Apple says that such methods and interfaces reduce the cognitive burden on a user and produce a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated computing devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges. 

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “The present disclosure generally relates to mail application features. In some embodiments, a contact identifier is selected. In some embodiments, an adaptive toolbar is provided. In some embodiments, document functions are accessed.”