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Apple and Google recently rolled out updates in iOS26 and Android 16, pushing ahead a major shift in marketing. For marketers, messaging has never been more exciting or challenging, from altering visibility and delivery to placing a greater emphasis on control and experience. These changes are reshaping how subscribers see, engage with and prioritize messages and notifications. The days of sending unpersonalized, batch-and-blast communication to a mass audience are officially over. The most successful marketers will take advantage of these shifts to adjust their strategies across all channels—email, SMS, mobile app—in order to build deeper connections with customers. Here’s a deeper look at the changes and steps you can take to adjust.
How marketing engagement is being affected by AI The Mail app will now use AI-generated summaries and previews in emails and text messages, which were first made available in iOS 18. This is the biggest change to hit messaging since Gmail introduced tabs back in 2013.
A user no longer needs to open a message to understand what a company has to say because Apple Intelligence automatically identifies and summarizes key points, such as order tracking details. Similar capabilities have been made available by Gmail, Yahoo, and Android, with additional intelligent features anticipated. Historically, image-only emails have caused a negative impact on deliverability, accessibility and even performance. Now, an email without HTML text could result in misleading summaries and a poor subscriber experience. Priority Messages and Notifications will only show messages or alerts that are important or need to be seen right away. It is possible that messages without a clear sense of urgency or relevance will be deprioritized, lowering overall engagement. It is essential to keep in mind how the accuracy with which AI summarizes or even suppresses your messages across channels can be affected by factors such as the complexity of your content, subtleties in language, and comprehension of the context. Four suggestions for effective messages In the first 20 characters of your message’s subject line and copy, get right to the point. Subject lines that sound like click-bait and generic blasts no longer work. With value, lead. In email, use descriptive HTML text and bullet points for key messages and place CTAs higher in the body. In SMS, provide recognizable sender information and concise, high-value offers or updates.
Subscriber behavior is changing. As open rates and read alerts become less reliable, engagement measurement must shift toward conversions, replies and downstream actions.
In order to ensure that your layout, copy, and design are optimized for both humans and AI, you can preview and test them across devices using Inbox Monster in Marketing Cloud. This is key to delivering the best possible experience to your subscribers.
How to navigate user control and privacy
iPhone users now have even more control over text messaging thanks to updates to the Messages app from Apple. Screen Unknown Senders will route messages from numbers not saved in a contact list into a separate, dedicated folder, thereby reducing the number of unwanted text messages. There is a built-in safeguard for time-sensitive notifications, such as two-factor authentication (2FA) codes. These alerts will temporarily appear, even if they come from a number not saved in a contact list.
Apple is also enhancing Link Tracking Protection, which automatically removes tracking parameters from URLs shared in Safari, Mail and Messages. Because the identifiers that are required for tracking will be removed, traditional methods of click-based attribution will become more difficult. Many email clients have rolled out capabilities like Gmail’s Manage Subscriptions, where users can easily view and manage subscriptions directly in their inbox. Mailbox providers are showing their users just how much mail they are getting from senders. Providing users the ability to decide what messages they want to see could lead to elevated unsubscribe rates. These shifts mean subscribers have more control than ever over which brands earn inbox visibility.
All of this should serve as a wake-up call for brands to examine their opt-in procedures across all channels and guarantee that they have explicit permission to communicate with subscribers. And once they have it, the should prioritize sending personalized, recognizable high-quality content.
What to know about the new features for notifications Android is introducing more improvements to usability and organization for app notifications. An AI-powered system like Notification Organizer, for instance, automatically sorts notifications into News, Promotions, Social, and Suggested categories. In addition, long-pressing a notification now presents two options: “Dismiss” and “Turn off.”
The Live Updates feature is designed to provide prominent, real-time progress tracking for time-sensitive activities, such as ride-shares, food delivery, and active navigation. These updates appear expanded on the lock screen for easy, at-a-glance access, so users don’t miss critical updates. Apple has similar functionality, Live Activities.
Notification Auto-Grouping bundles multiple notifications from an app into a single alert, and Notification Cooldown lowers the volume and visibility of repetitive notifications from the same app to prevent alert overload. If the phone detects a high number of alerts from a single app, it will lower the sound and minimize new pop-up alerts for a period of up to two minutes.
Focus Mode will soon receive some intelligent enhancements from Apple. Users can select Reduce Interruptions, which engages Intelligent Breakthrough and Silencing. In real time, this will automatically determine a notification’s significance. When enabled, it allows important notifications (such as those from your family) to break through, while silencing less-urgent alerts.
Not all messages are treated equally anymore. In order to maintain brand visibility, these changes emphasize the significance of messaging usefulness and relevance.
