Superhuman vs Gmail: CSS Support Differences
Superhuman renders with Blink; Gmail renders with Gmail Web. The gap runs almost entirely one way: 23 features work in Superhuman and break in the other, against 1 in the reverse direction. Build for the stricter one and the permissive one follows.
Support data derived from caniemail.com (MIT) - last synced Sep 2, 2026 - engine data v0.12.2
54
work in both
the safe intersection
23
only in Superhuman
breaks in Gmail
1
only in Gmail
breaks in Superhuman
12
partial on one side
renders, with caveats
Works in Superhuman, breaks in Gmail
Each of these needs a fallback if the send reaches both.
Works in Gmail, breaks in Superhuman
Partial on one side
These render in both, but one client applies caveats the other does not. They fail quietly, which makes them the expensive ones.
A further 5 features render in neither client. Not a difference between them, but the other half of the answer to what you can actually use, so the four counts above deliberately do not sum to 95.
203 of 298 features have no confident data point for at least one of these clients, so they are excluded from every count above rather than assumed either way.
Where the divergence sits
Two pairs with the same headline number can be different problems. For these two it concentrates in CSS Properties.
- CSS Properties 28
- HTML Elements 4
- CSS At-Rules 4
14 of these already have a fix
Each links to a copy-paste snippet that keeps the feature working in Gmail without dropping it in Superhuman.
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Questions
- How different are Superhuman and Gmail?
- They disagree on 36 of the 95 features verified in both clients, or 38%. 54 features render in both and are the safe intersection to build on.
- What works in Superhuman but not Gmail?
- 23 features, including <picture>, <svg>, @font-face, @supports, accent-color and 18 more. Each needs a fallback if the send reaches both clients.
- Which engines are these two clients using?
- Superhuman renders with Blink; Gmail renders with Gmail Web. Where two clients share an engine the divergence is usually configuration, and where they do not it is the engine itself.
- Is this measured in the real clients?
- No. These are documented support levels derived from caniemail.com (MIT-licensed), carried in @emailens/engine data version 0.12.2 and last synced Sep 2, 2026. That sync date is not a test date: caniemail's own per-feature tests run from Feb 28, 2019 to Jul 13, 2026. Anything described as a transform is applied per those documented rules rather than captured from a real client.
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