Here at Sendwithus, we’re a team of email nerds who like to keep on top of email news and happenings. Gmail recently made a few changes that affect the lives of email designers, developers, and strategists and we want to be sure you’re in the know.
Gmail now supports CSS media queries!
Support for CSS means that coding emails will be easier and your message will be formatted as originally intended, regardless of which device it’s viewed on. Whether on a desktop, in portrait mode on a phone, or in landscape mode on a tablet, the styles will update based upon width, rotation, and resolution to make sure your responsive emails look great on every device.
Inlining, we are so over…
Previously, Gmail did not support any <style> code in the <head> of an email, which forced email designers to inline style elements. (Sidebar: Sendwithus has always had a built-in CSS inliner that does the heavy lifting for you). Without all the extra code of inlining, size of emails is reduced, meaning less coding time for designers and developers, and faster load times for subscribers. You can review the official Gmail CSS documentation here.
In what might be indicative of a sea-change, Gmail announced the changes before they took effect. After years of a sometimes strained relationship, this early announcement might be a bit of an olive branch between inbox providers and email developers. Coming so close on the heels of the recently announced partnership between Litmus and Microsoft, this Gmail change will hopefully lead to a more cooperative world for all of us in the email industry.
