Alt text and Apple WebKit
Email services using Apple's WebKit (Apple Mail & email clients accessed via Safari) only display image alt text when the alt text is short enough to fit in the first "line" of the image area:
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If the alt text is longer than this, Apple will display no alt text for the image area at all:
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Other issues to be aware of
When you are working with a design in Mail Designer 365 where image areas in the desktop and mobile versions are attached, your desktop alt text will also be used for the mobile version of your email.
As image blocks in the smartphone view aren't as wide, this means the cut-off point for your alt text will come sooner, so the alt text will need to be even shorter if the design versions are paired.
Ways to resolve this issue
We appreciate this is a difficult issue and unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach that can be applied to your alt text length. This is mainly due to the fact that the size of image areas can vary massively in different email designs, as well as the mobile issue mentioned above.
Ideally, the optimal solution would be for Apple to change things behind the scenes. However, until this happens, the best workaround is to keep your alt text as short as possible and TEST TEST TEST!
To test the length of your alt text is suitable before you send, carry out the following steps:
- Go to Mail > Preferences > Viewing and uncheck the box by "Load remote content in messages."
- In Mail Designer 365, use the Testmail service to send yourself a test version of your design.
- Open the email in Mail and check through all the image areas to see if the alt texts appear. Then, do the same on an iPhone to check the mobile version.
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