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Guide · Office and email

How to add a signature in the Gmail app on iPhone and Android, and keep your logo

By Blink Brief · Updated  · How pages are made

The Gmail app's own signature, called Mobile Signature, is text you type on the phone. If you don't make one, Google's help says "new messages use the signature that you set up on your computer", and that's the signature that can carry your logo. So set up the logo signature in Gmail on a computer, leave Mobile Signature off in the app for each account, and send yourself a test from the phone.

Short answer

  1. On a computer, put the signature with your logo in Gmail: Settings › See all settings › Signature, then Save Changes.
  2. iPhone or iPad: in the Gmail app, Menu › Settings › Signature settings, and leave Mobile Signature off.
  3. Android: in the Gmail app, Menu › Settings › your account › Mobile signature, and leave it empty.
  4. Repeat for each account in the app, then send a test to an address outside Gmail.

Google's steps on a computer: open Gmail, "At the top right, click Settings" › See all settings. "In the "Signature" section, add your signature text in the box. If you want, you can format your message by adding an image or changing the text style." Then "At the bottom of the page, click Save Changes."

You can build the signature in that box, or make it in the free Email Signature generator, press Copy signature, and paste it there. The generator links the logo from a public https:// address, so each reader's email app loads it from the web. The team signature guide has the full Gmail steps, including a separate signature for each "Send mail as" address.

iPhone and iPad: Signature settings › Mobile Signature

Google's steps, which also show where the switch is:

  1. "On your iPhone or iPad, open the Gmail app."
  2. "At the top left, tap Menu" › Settings.
  3. "Under "Compose and Reply," tap Signature settings."
  4. To keep the computer signature with your logo, leave Mobile Signature off. If it's on, turn it off.
  5. "To save, tap Back."

Turning Mobile Signature on and typing a signature does the opposite: mail from the app gets that text, and no logo.

Android: Mobile signature

  1. "Open the Gmail app."
  2. "In the top left, tap Menu."
  3. "Scroll to the bottom, then tap Settings."
  4. "Choose the Google Account where you want to add a signature."
  5. "Tap Mobile signature."

Google's steps go on to "Enter the text for your signature" and "Tap OK". Google's help describes no on-off switch for Android: what it says is that when you don't create a signature in the app, it uses the one from your computer. To keep your logo, leave the Mobile signature box empty, and delete any text already there.

Several accounts: the setting is per account

Google: "If you have multiple accounts in the Gmail app, you need to change this setting for each account." On Android you pick the account in the settings list first. So a work account can keep its computer signature with the logo while a personal account has a short Mobile Signature, or none at all.

Each account uses its own computer signature too, so set the logo signature in Gmail on a computer for every account that should send it.

Logo size rules for Gmail

From Google's troubleshooting page:

  • "We recommend a signature image that’s 70–100 pixels high by 300–400 pixels wide. The maximum size for email signature images is 100 pixels high by 1000 pixels wide."
  • A link must point to "an image that is publicly available on the web". A Drive image needs its sharing "set to public".
  • "You can put up to 10,000 characters in your signature," and "Your image also counts toward the character limit."

Check your logo link

To check it by hand:

  1. Open the link in a private browser window. It should show only the logo: no sign-in page and no website around it.
  2. Check that the link starts with https:// and ends in .png or .jpg.
  3. Most browsers show the image's size in pixels in the tab's title. Divide the height by the width and multiply by the width you show it at: that's its height in the signature. Keep it at 100 or less for Gmail.

Check it: send from the phone to another account

  1. In the Gmail app, write a new email to an address outside your Gmail account, such as an Outlook.com or iCloud address.
  2. Open it there. Google's pages don't say whether the app shows the computer signature while you type, so judge by the email that arrives, not by the compose screen.
  3. In classic Outlook for Windows, a blank box where the logo should be means Outlook is holding back the picture: Microsoft says it "is configured by default to block automatic picture downloads from the Internet." Choose Download Pictures to see it.
  4. Reply, and check that the logo is there in your reply from the phone too.
  • The text arrives but not the logo: the logo link isn't public, or it opens a Drive page instead of the image. Run the checker above.
  • Neither arrives: Mobile Signature is still on with text in it, or you sent from another account. Check the setting for that account.
  • You can't find the signature in a sent email: Google says signatures can be hidden under "Show trimmed content" at the bottom of a message.

For each email app, symptom by symptom: why a signature logo isn't showing. If you also send from the iPhone's own Mail app, the iPhone Mail guide explains why its signature takes text only.

Questions

Can you add an image to a Gmail mobile signature?

Not in the app's own signature: Google's steps for Android say "Enter the text for your signature." The image comes from the signature you set up in Gmail on a computer, which the app uses when you haven't made one in the app.

Is the Gmail mobile signature the same as desktop?

Only if you leave it off. Google: "If you don't create a signature in the Gmail app, new messages use the signature that you set up on your computer." Once you turn on Mobile Signature, mail from the app uses that one instead.

What is mobile signature in Gmail?

In Google's words, "a signature that shows up only for emails you send from the Gmail app." It's set per account, in the app's settings, and doesn't change the signature on your computer.

Why is my Gmail signature not showing on my phone?

Three usual reasons: Mobile Signature is on and replaces the computer signature; you're sending from a different account in the app, since each account has its own setting; or Gmail has folded the signature away. Google: "Signatures are separated from the message body by two dashes" and can be hidden under Show trimmed content.

How do I add a signature in the Gmail app on Android?

Open the Gmail app, tap Menu at the top left, scroll to the bottom and tap Settings, choose the Google Account, tap Mobile signature, enter the text, and tap OK.

Sources

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