Choose how message bodies are themed (Auto, Light, or Dark), plus the per-email toggle and the honest limits.
When you put the app into dark mode, the inbox chrome — the list, the toolbar, and the CRM panel — goes dark. The message body is a separate question. Many marketing emails are designed against a white background with hardcoded colors, so forcing them dark can wash out logos and collapse button fills. The Email appearance setting lets you decide how your message bodies are themed, and a per-email toggle lets you flip any single message the other way.
One per-user preference with three options, set once and synced across devices.
Open the gear in the inbox toolbar and choose Email settings (or go to Settings > Email), then look under Reading for the Email appearance picker. Your choice is saved per user and applies on every device you use.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Auto | Designed newsletters and other rich, formatted emails stay on a light card, even when the app is in dark mode. This is the safe default for most marketing email: it keeps brand-colored layouts looking the way the sender intended. Plain-text and simple emails follow the app theme. |
| Light | Message bodies always render on a light background, regardless of the app theme. Pick this if you prefer reading email on white and never want a dark body. |
| Dark | Message bodies are themed to a dark background when the app is in dark mode. Best for plain, text-forward email. See the limits below before turning this on for image-heavy newsletters. |
A one-click override on the email you are reading, without changing your default.
Every HTML email you open has a light/dark toggle in the reading-pane toolbar. The button shows a moon icon (Use dark background) when the body is light, and a sun icon (Use light background) when the body is dark. Click it to re-theme the message in place — no reload, no flash. The override applies only to the email you are reading and does not change your saved Email appearance default.
This is the one-click escape hatch: if a newsletter looks wrong dark, tap the toggle to read it light, and the next message you open is back to your default.
Dark mode re-themes the parts of a message we can read as text — body copy, headings, links, and quoted replies. It cannot recolor pixels inside an image. Some newsletters are built almost entirely as images, with the headline and call-to-action baked into a picture. On those messages a dark body leaves the image blocks sitting on a dark background as bright rectangles, and image-based buttons can look like they float in empty space.