Add an animated signature to Mail on iPhone and iPad
Apple’s own guide says Mail signatures on iPhone are text only. There is a widely used workaround that keeps the image, described below. It is not an Apple-supported feature, and it has to be done on each device.
Before you start
- Design your signature on BylineSig on a computer and install it in your desktop mail client first.
- Send yourself an email from that client so the signature arrives on your phone.
Paste it into iPhone Mail
- Open the email on your iPhone, press and hold on the signature, choose Select All within it, then Copy.
- Open the Settings app, then Apps, then Mail, then Signature. On iOS 17 and earlier it is Settings, then Mail, then Signature.
- Tap the signature field, clear it, and Paste.
- iOS strips the formatting as it pastes. Shake the phone and tap Undo on “Undo Change Attributes” to restore it. If shake to undo is off, swipe left with three fingers instead.
- Go back to save. If you have several accounts, tap Per Account to set it for each one.
Does the animation play?
Mail on iPhone and iPad animates GIFs when someone reads your email there. Whether the image survives in your own signature depends on the paste-and-undo step above working on your version of iOS.
If you send from the Gmail app instead, there is nothing to do on the phone: leave the app’s mobile signature empty and it uses the signature you set in Gmail on the web.
These steps follow Apple: Change Mail settings on iPhone, last checked October 2026. Menus move; if yours looks different, tell us at [email protected] and we will fix the guide.