Whether you’ve noticed or not, email is changing rapidly.

Thanks to new technologies fighting against email abuse, mailbox providers are delivering a more secure, accessible, and intuitive experience to win over more users.

Of course, predicting the future is difficult, but there is often evidence suggesting what the future holds for inboxes.

By attempting to predict the future, we can better understand the email landscape as it is currently and identify future deliverability opportunities.

Below, I have outlined my predictions for what is likely in the next five years, supported by evidence of recent changes, and advice on what you can do to keep your email communication ahead of the curve.

6 email predictions leading up to 2030 

Non-chronological mailboxes

Chronological mailboxing (mailboxes that organize emails from most to least recent) has been the standard forever, even within the newer category tabbing or tagging approach, but there are signs in the industry that other ways of organizing may be on the horizon, from per-sender collections to engagement-based elevation and more.

Why do I predict this:

Many mailbox providers have made efforts to declutter inboxes over the years, in an attempt to reduce the noise and surface the important or engaging emails. 

Notable efforts include tabbing, “ad-supported messages” in the inbox, “relevant” elevations based on engagement and content, and grouping conversation threads into a single message.

What you can do with this information:

A marketer’s strategy and experimentation should be focused on developing stronger relationships via consistent engagement and more highly recognizable sender/subject line information rather than relying on tricks like click-bait subject lines or sending at the perfect time to be at the top of the inbox.

Alt tags and other accessibility features handled “in-house” by AI

Accessibility elements like alt tags have been constantly neglected by marketers, and can be difficult to effectively implement without experience. The incorporation of AI into mailboxes will likely solve this issue in the future. 

Why do I predict this:

With Google implementing Gemini into Workspace accounts, AI’s capacity to effectively process more than just text for summarization, and AI’s costs for such features becoming more accessible in the future, it is not difficult to imagine this becoming commonplace for email.

What you can do with this information:

Continue to include accessibility elements in your marketing content but focus on building a clear and concise presentation of your content that assists AI in its presentation and summarization of content.  

AI will cause new features to be accessible without requiring custom code

Up until recently, things like AMP for email or Google Annotations require custom code for elevating particular content or offerings in more unique ways. This is likely to change with AI tools in the inbox that will allow marketers to take advantage of such features without coding.

Why do I predict this:

The replacement of pre-header messages with AI summarizations of content,  experimentation with Google annotations, and the persistent trend of finding ways to elevate paid ads shows this as a likely and accessible opportunity.

What you can do with this information:

Focus your efforts on more clearly and cleanly elevating your desired call-to-actions, as well as creating a habit of monitoring email news sources for understanding new releases and trends. 

Along with this, future experimentation with code-heavy new email elements should be considered within the context of the likely impact/results based on your product, content, and audience before wasting unnecessary efforts.

MBP-managed subscription preferences

One of the most common problems with email is honoring subscription preferences. Currently, these controls  sit with each sender and align with an honor system, but I can see a future where that changes so that all subscribes and unsubscribes are handled or at least “middle-managed” by the mailbox provider directly.

Why do I predict this:

The recent requirement of one-click unsubscribe and elevating the unsubscribe button, as well as the new trend of providing an alias option for privacy, are all efforts to give the power of choice to the subscriber.

What you can do with this information:

Set up your email program to properly earn subscribers through honest and transparent subscribe forms, to easily elevate preference options, and to consistently honor subscriber preferences without issue. 

New perks made accessible only through registered business portals

From paid inbox-elevation to special in-mailbox offer portals, I think it is highly likely that more paid features are going to be offered and they will be funneled through the requirement of registered business accounts for bulk senders.

Why do I predict this:

iCloud’s use of “Apple Business Connect” for a BIMI-like feature, as well as the current ad-system in consumer mailbox systems, supports the idea of more features like this coming in the future, especially to consumer mailboxes.

What you can do with this information:

Focus your efforts on creating strong, organic relationships with your email content that fuels un-paid engagement and resilience against paid ads taking up the top of the inbox, as it is likely to become difficult to own these places in subscribers’ inboxes in the future without paying for them.

If you are also wanting to utilize these features in the future, you should understand what mailboxes and mailbox apps are primarily used by your audience so that once such features are available you know where to position your energy and resources.

Authentication streamlined to a single record

When it comes to email authentication, things are getting more complicated and requiring more records in order to fully meet mailbox requirements while still not 100% resolving the needs for protection and authentication reliably and efficiently.

This indicates to me that the future of authentication standards includingDKIM, SPF, DMARC, BIMI, and more will at the least need streamlining while also increasing functionality.

Whilst this is going to be a complicated undertaking, anyone who works with bulk email would likely agree that as more security and authentication policies are brought in, managing them will also need to become more user-friendly.

Why do I predict this:

The knowledge-friction of understanding and properly implementing DKIM, SPF, DMARC, and BIMI for non-technical marketers; the requirement of multiple records for a single sending organization; the growth in authentication technologies and services; and the speed at which authentication services have to evolve to keep up with email abuse are all creating what can feel like an unending learning curve for non-technical folks.

What you can do with this information:

While ongoing controls against unsolicited email is needed, there is likely still some time before improvements to the usability of these controls come about so I would still highly recommend that non-technical marketers grow their education around what technical pieces are required for authentication, how they work, and how to maintain them..

While I won’t promote purchasing any third-party services, DMARCIAN provides a nice, free video series that can walk you through the basics around email authentication..

The final prediction that is guaranteed to be true

Whilst the predictions outlined above are interesting thought starters on the future of email, most of these things are simply ‘nice-to-haves’ and, while they might move the needle, will not be the main things impacting your email’s inboxing rates in the future.

What do I believe will be the most impacting changes?

Reputation will become more personalized by subscriber 

The single most effective tool for identifying relevant vs irrelevant content for mailbox providers has consistently been subscriber engagement. 

The evolution of deliverability over the last decade has primarily  qualified against subscriber engagement for some of the best and most nuanced inbox-vs-spam results…and this is likely only to continue as AI is further integrated into email.

Why do I predict this:

Between the crowd of mailbox providers echoing the Yahoogle announcement from 2023 and the growing success of providers like Google utilizing subscriber engagement heaviest in inboxing decisions, all signs lead to providers trusting real user interaction to help identify desired vs undesired email traffic.

What you can do with this information:

Continue to elevate your email efforts by regularly testing and optimizing  your emails to provide more relevant, timely, and compelling content to each subscriber..

The future of email is higher accessibility, timeliness, and relevance for every piece of content to every individual subscriber.

This email strategy is already accessible. It just takes time, energy, intentionality, and the right email platform to do it, but if you follow it, your email success rates will flourish.

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