Reading mail

This page covers everything that happens when you open a message: how conversations are shown, what Nixt Mail does to keep a message from tracking you, and the bars and buttons you can see around a message.

Open a message

• Click a message in the message list. It opens in the reading pane.
• From the keyboard: click any message once so the list has the focus, then press ↓ or J for the next message and ↑ or K for the previous one. The list scrolls to keep the open message in view.
• On a narrow window: tap a message to open it full screen; tap Back to return to the list.

Messages usually open at once, because Nixt Mail downloads the next few messages, and those on screen, before you ask for them. If a message has not arrived yet, the pane shows its first line and fills in the rest as it downloads. Downloading ahead never marks anything read. To download only the messages you open — on a metered connection, for example — turn off Settings › Sync and offline › Download messages in advance.

If a message cannot be downloaded, the pane says Could not load this message. A message with no text at all says This message has no readable text content.

When a message is marked read

Settings › Reading › Mark as read decides:

To mark a message unread again, press U or choose Mark unread in the toolbar. See Read and unread.

Conversations

When Settings › Message list › Group messages into conversations is One row per conversation (the default), a message and its replies share one row in the list, and the row shows how many messages the conversation holds. Nixt Mail groups messages by the reply information mail programs add, and by subject where that is missing. Choose One row per message to list every message on its own; you can also switch with View › Show Messages Separately and View › Group by Conversation.

Opening a conversation shows every message in it, with the latest one open.

Earlier messages

Earlier messages appear as one line each — the sender, the first words and the time. Click a line to open that message; it downloads when you do.

Settings › Reading › Older messages in a conversation changes this:

If you change this with a conversation on screen, messages that should now be open open straight away. Nothing already open is folded.

Order within a conversation

The message header

Each message in a conversation shows the sender’s picture, name and address, who it went to, and the time. Today’s mail shows the time of day; earlier mail shows the date. Settings › General › Clock format chooses a 12-hour or 24-hour clock, and Settings › General › Date format chooses how dates are written: Sep 12, 12 Sep or 2026-09-12. Mail from before this year always includes the year.

The reading pane always shows the sender’s full name and address, whatever Sender names in the list is set to.

Copy text from a message

You can select text anywhere in a message, including the subject, and copy it with ⌘C (Ctrl+C on Windows and Linux) or Edit › Copy. A selection can run across several messages in a conversation.

Print a conversation

To print the conversation you are reading, choose File › Print… or press ⌘P (Ctrl+P on Windows and Linux). You can also right-click a message in the list and choose Print…, or choose Print this conversation in the command palette.

Every message in the conversation is printed, in the order the reading pane shows them, under the subject. Each message has its sender, who it went to, anyone copied, and the full date and time.

• macOS: the Mac’s print window opens, with a preview of the pages. Choose a printer and click Print, or choose PDF › Save as PDF to keep a copy.
• Windows and Linux: the conversation opens in your web browser with the browser’s print window, where you choose a printer or save a PDF.

Remote images are printed only from senders whose images already load — see Settings for remote images. Messages in the conversation you had not opened are downloaded to be printed, and are marked read.

Formatted mail

Many messages — newsletters, receipts, notifications — are written as web pages. Nixt Mail shows them formatted, after making them safe:

• Nothing in a message can run. Scripts, embedded frames, forms and similar content are removed. When Nixt Mail removes any, a notice above the message says Nixt Mail removed scripts or embedded content from this message. Ordinary mail does not contain them.
• Nothing is fetched from the web until you ask. See Remote images.
• Links only open when you click them, and only web (http and https) and email (mailto) links open at all.

In a dark theme, a formatted message with no colours of its own — most mail written by people — is shown in the dark theme’s colours, with pictures on a light backing so a logo stays readable. A message that sets its own colours, such as a newsletter, keeps the white background it was designed on, so none of it turns dark on dark.

Under a formatted message is Show plain text, which shows the message’s text without its layout. Choose Show formatted to go back. Each message remembers the choice while it is open.

Plain-text mail

Messages written as plain text are shown as text.

• Quoted text. With Settings › Reading › Quoted text in messages set to Collapsed, the run of quoted lines at the end of a plain-text reply — and the “On … wrote:” line that introduces it — is replaced by a button such as Show quoted text · 12 lines. Choose it to show the quote for that message. A reply written between the lines of a quote is part of the message and is never folded. The default is Shown.
• Fixed-width text. Turn on Settings › Reading › Fixed-width font for plain text to show plain-text mail in a fixed-width font, so tables, logs and code stay in columns. It is off by default.

Text size

Settings › Appearance › Message text size makes a message’s own text Smaller, Standard (default), Larger or Largest than the rest of the app. It applies on top of the app text size, and a sample sentence under the setting shows the size you chose.

Remote images and tracking protection

Pictures in mail are often stored on the sender’s web server. Loading one tells the sender that you opened the message, when, and roughly where you are. So Nixt Mail does not load them unless you ask.

When a message has remote pictures, a bar above it says, for example, 3 remote images were not loaded. Loading them tells the sender you opened this. When some of them are tracking pixels — invisible images, a pixel or so in size, whose only job is to report that you opened the message — the bar counts them apart, for example 3 remote images were not loaded, and 1 is a tracking pixel. When every one is, it says A tracking pixel was blocked. The bar offers three choices:

When you allow images, the message is made safe again with the images allowed, so allowing pictures cannot allow anything else.

Settings for remote images

Links

Misleading links

When a link’s text looks like one address but the link goes somewhere else, Nixt Mail points it out above the message: A link reading ”…” actually goes to the real host. Up to three such notices appear for a message. This happens whatever your link setting is.

Check a link before it opens

Settings › Privacy and security › Show where a link goes first decides what happens when you click a link in a message:

Sender icons

Nixt Mail normally shows each sender as their initials. Settings › Message list › Sender logos can show a company’s logo instead.

How sender icons work:

• A domain is asked once, however many messages you have from it, and the answer is remembered — including when there is no icon.
• The request goes to the domain’s own website and carries nothing about you or your mail: not your address, not the message, no cookies.
• Mail from a sending subdomain shows the icon of the domain that has one, so a company’s mailing subdomain shows the company’s logo.
• Big mailbox providers, such as Gmail, Outlook, iCloud and Yahoo addresses, keep their initials, so personal correspondents do not all wear the same logo.
• Turning the setting back to Initials only deletes every icon Nixt Mail kept.

This is a smaller disclosure than loading remote images, but it is not nothing: a company whose logo is fetched can see that someone at your internet address has mail from them. That is why it is off by default.

To hide pictures from rows altogether, turn off Settings › Message list › Sender pictures in the list.

Mailing lists and unsubscribing

When a message says how to unsubscribe from the list that sent it, a bar above it says This came from a mailing list. with a button. Nixt Mail only offers this when the sender provided an unsubscribe method in the message’s headers; it never guesses at a link in the body.

Every button asks first, in a dialog that says where the request goes:

• Unsubscribe: Nixt Mail will tell the sender’s host to stop, directly. Nothing opens, and the request confirms to them that this address is read.
• Unsubscribe on their site: This opens the host in your browser. Nixt Mail cannot see what happens there, and the link may identify you to them.
• Unsubscribe by email: This starts a message to the address from your account. Sending it is up to you.

Choose the button again in the dialog to go ahead, or Keep receiving it to leave things as they are.

After a one-click unsubscribe, a snack bar says one of:

Manage subscriptions

To see every mailing list in a folder at once, open the folder and choose Manage subscriptions… from the list’s ⋯ menu, or Message › Manage Subscriptions… in the menu bar. Nixt Mail reads the newest 500 messages in the folder and lists one row per sender, the most frequent first, with how many of its messages there are. On a phone, the list opens as its own page.

• Senders with a box offer one-click unsubscribing. Tick the ones you want, or choose Select all, then Unsubscribe from and the number. One dialog names every sender you chose. Choose Unsubscribe from again to send the requests, or Keep receiving them to send nothing.
• Open their page opens that sender’s unsubscribe page in your browser.
• Write to them starts an unsubscribe message to the sender. You send it yourself.

Each row then says Asked to stop, Not accepted or Couldn’t reach, and one line above the list sums it up, such as Asked 3 senders to stop. Messages from a sender you asked to stop show Asked them to stop. in their mailing-list bar.

Read receipts

Some messages ask to be told when you read them. Replying to that request tells the sender that your address is read, by whom and when. Settings › Privacy and security › Offer to send read receipts decides:

Nothing is sent unless you choose Send receipt. The receipt goes to the address the request named, from the account the message arrived at, and a snack bar says Receipt sent. Nixt Mail also marks the message on the server, so other mail apps do not ask again. Not now hides the bar for as long as Nixt Mail stays open.

If sending fails, the snack bar says Couldn’t send the receipt — not connected. or Couldn’t send the receipt: followed by the reason.

Attachments

Files attached to a message appear under it, headed 1 attachment or, for example, 3 attachments. Each file is a card showing:

• A small badge with the file type.
• The file name.
• A line with its size and, where it applies: opens here for a PDF that opens inside Nixt Mail, saved once you have saved it, or program — saved, not opened for a program file.

Click a card to download the file and open it. PDFs open in Nixt Mail’s own viewer; documents, spreadsheets and presentations open in Nixt Mail’s editors; other files open in the app your system uses for them. Program files — such as .exe, .dmg, .sh or .app — are saved but never opened, and their card has an amber border and a lock.

Settings › Reading › Where attachments are saved chooses Save to Downloads (default) or Ask where to put it.

When AI is set up, a sparkle on a card lets you ask about that file. See AI features.

Opening, saving, editing and sending files back are covered in full on Attachments and documents.

Invitations

A message that carries a calendar invitation shows a bar above the message where you can answer it. See Calendar.

Reading with no connection

If you keep offline mail, messages you have opened before can be read with no connection. A message that was not kept says This message has not been kept on this device. Reconnect to read it, or turn on offline mail in Settings to keep the ones you open. See Offline mail.

Settings on this page