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davidbanham

Why is that email using HTML?

Hello there! Thanks for purchasing X for $Y. Your tax invoice is attached. Here's where you can track your delivery:

http://example.com/tracking

Thanks!

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Such a minimalist design may work for some products/brands. But just as many companies, especially companies that put a lot of focus on brand management, may want nice images and responsive design. It's not an unreasonable request.

Even if it's not as effective for click-through/customer re-engagement/etc. you should let the customer decide on what kind of emails they want. Data will prove if nice images and ads are less effective than simple HTML. Gmail shouldn't be forcing that decision, it should be empowering the greatest number of people to do the most amount of things.

I disagree. If you don't want your email to look the way Gmail displays it, use a different client. I don't want a million configurations for how I could possibly have my mail displayed. Show me a good option. If I don't like it, I'll use a different option. That being said, one thing I really miss in Gmail compared to other options is being able to do things like sort by the sender and that sort of thing. Instead I have to search for that sender which often gives me many false positives.

Sorry, I was not clear.

For consumers, gmail should provide the optimal email experience- if they don't like it, they have the choice to use a different product.

But for developers, gmail should provide as many tools and as much functionality to meet developers need. That way developers build, Google profits.

> may want nice images and responsive design

Responsive design? Have you ever tried implementing an HTML email that will work across different clients? I'd be thrilled if 2005-era floats worked. As it stands, <table>s inside <table>s is state of the art.

HTML makes receipts more readable at-a-glance. You can emphasise more important information, format things into proper table columns, show an image of the item, etc.

Because even a 'simple' email need to carry significant amounts of information, all with varying levels of importance.

A newsletter will multiple items will need headings (for people to scan through if they're short on time), a paragraph for people who need more details. Images, if the articles require them, also help.

Corporate email - not just advertisements, but also invoices, notifications, as such, almost always require some sort of branding. Customers expect them - a plain text email might be regarded as phishing or fake. And why force people to open up an attachment when HTML exists and can mark up those elements perfectly well?

Email also need to carry information of less importance - unsubscribe links, confidentiality notices, signatures, most of which are required by law or lawyers, but which can be made smaller or greyed out so they can be ignored when reading.

You can't do any of the above with plain text. What you need is markup, which guess what, HTML is.

Because users hate additional steps.

Because you can't expect the email server/client to index the invoice for it's search database.

Probably other reasons

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