How to add an email signature in Gmail for iPhone

The Gmail app for iPhone and iPad is not the same as Mail, the email app that ships with the iPhone. If your work account lives in the Gmail app, the signature that goes out depends on a switch tucked inside each account's settings.

That switch is called “Mobile Signature”. When it is on, the app adds a plain text line you type right there. When it is off, the app uses the signature you have in Gmail web, with tables, colours and logo. For most people, the right answer is to turn it off.

If the same account is also set up in iPhone Mail, that app has its own signature and does not read Gmail's. They are two separate settings even though the address is the same; Mail has its own guide.

Turning the mobile signature on makes sense in one case: when you want a note like “Written on my phone, sorry for the brevity” instead of the full signature. It works, but it is plain text and it replaces the other one.

Think, too, about whoever opens your email with images turned off. Then only the alternative text remains, so every image needs an alt with your name or the company's. And the phone number and email address must be real text, not part of a picture, so they can be tapped on the iPhone to call or write.