In this post, I’ll tell you why I switched from Gmail’s own app to Apple’s Mail app, and it might not be for the reason you’d think.

I love Gmail

Firstly, before I start this post, I just want to make it clear that I love using Gmail. I find the service fast, modern, and reliable. The @gmail.com domain name is short and easy to say when you’re giving your email out. It’s also tied to Google’s own ecosystem, so you can use your account to access YouTube, Docs, Gemini, and much more. Even the Gmail app is great; it’s super fast and obviously works seamlessly with its own email services.

Apple Mail: Look & Feel

In recent years, Apple Mail has continued to get better. In previous iOS releases, it improved its design, with a stunning edge-to-edge look for emails and great integration with the glass interface. They’ve even introduced categories, making it easy to manage your emails regardless of who your email provider is. You can give emails different flags (which actually works perfectly with starring on Gmail – if you flag an email, it’ll be starred in your Gmail). I also like that Apple Mail has a dedicated app across all of its devices, and if you’re a Mac user, you get access to its stunning desktop app.

Switching ahead of Siri AI in iOS 27

I’d been using the Gmail app for a number of years. I love it – it’s reliable, fast, and really simple to use. So why did I make the switch to Apple Mail? Well… it’s all because of the new Siri AI, which landed with iOS 27 this month. The new Siri is heavily integrated with the Apple ecosystem, and you’re able to ask it to find emails for you, a feature which I thought would be great, as we all know how easily emails can get lost when your inbox is full. As Apple Mail downloads your emails to the device, these all get indexed by Siri AI, so with the power of Apple Intelligence, Siri knows your inbox and can find what you’re looking for, and also take action through the mail app.

I’m glad I switched to Apple Mail prior to iOS 27 launching, as I’ve achieved what I set out to. I can ask Siri to find an email for me and it does it, so I feel as though I’m really taking advantage of this new feature.

Apple has announced that third-party apps will be able to link in with Siri, so this feature may well come to third-party mail apps in the future, but after reading some information online, this feature coming to Gmail isn’t guaranteed – and if it does, it might be a few years down the line. So that’s my reason for switching, and I actually did it early so I could get used to Apple Mail before the new iOS launched.

No Push Notifications

Okay, so there’s one downside to having Gmail in Apple Mail, and that’s the fact that it doesn’t support instant push notifications; it only supports fetch. This means that instead of being notified about a new email as it arrives, it can take at least 15 minutes (longer if your settings aren’t set to this minimum time). Gmail only supports push notifications in their own app and select third-party ones – not in Apple Mail. This doesn’t bother me too much, as you can always open and refresh the mail app and it’ll download your latest emails, but I guess it could be quite annoying if you like instant notifications.

Gmail may get better

As mentioned above, the Gmail app might eventually allow integration with Siri AI. If it does, I may consider switching back.

So that’s why I made the switch to Apple Mail, and I’m really enjoying it so far. I’m in the Apple ecosystem, so it made sense for me to switch and get the benefits of the new Apple Intelligence features. If notifications are important to you and you’re a Gmail user, that’s one thing to note – you won’t get instant email notifications. There are some providers out there which support push notifications and will work seamlessly with Apple Mail; these include Outlook and Yahoo. I didn’t want to switch email providers, though, as my Google account is also used for services like Gemini, and should I ever need to use the web, I find Gmail’s web version the best, and I can easily access my docs too.

Did you switch to Apple Mail with iOS 27, or is there another app you prefer? I’d love to know what you’re using and why.