Most other email clients, with the exception of AOL, show images by default. These days, the biggest culprits are the Outlook desktop clients. In the past many email clients blocked images by default. This makes it even more important for email marketers to make sure any images being used are optimized. Subscribers have to really dig to figure out how to turn images off for their mobile devices. The bandwidth argument would still be a good reason for image blocking to be turned on, but all mobile email clients we tested allow images by default. This allows for the email clients to check for viruses and malware before the images reach inboxes, decreasing the need for image blocking as a security feature. They also offer the point that blocking the images by default allows people with lower bandwidths to choose if they want to use that bandwidth for image download or not.įor email clients that have images turned on by default, many of them use image proxy servers to host the images instead of having the images come directly from the external hosts. Microsoft claims they block images to help their readers avoid viewing potentially offensive content as well as protect them from malicious code. There are several reasons why email clients block images or turn them off by default. Or this one with better image ALT text (still doesn’t look great, though, right?): Email created with multiple images: ALT text provided is a bit more descriptive in places Why does it happen? This results in images not showing up in emails, such as this one with almost no image ALT text: Email made up of 2 images: limited non-descriptive ALT text provided Let’s dive into how the changing landscape has impacted images in email and update some of our best practices for 2021 and beyond.Įmail image blocking is the practice where images are blocked from emails or not displayed by email clients or company servers. But as email has advanced, the landscape has changed. Lots of reasons have been given for this. If you’re in email marketing, you’ve probably heard that you’re not supposed to send all-image emails. Enterprise Plan Boost collaboration and drive results.Litmus Plus Automate testing to ensure quality.Litmus Basic Build error-free, effective emails quickly.All Plans See solutions for companies of all sizes.

Images not loading in gmail