Pseudo-Classes & Selectors

:hover

selector or pseudo-class · 13 supported, 2 partial, 5 unsupported across 21 clients

13 of 21 email clients render :hover fully (Sep 2, 2026 data); it breaks outright in Gmail iOS, Outlook (New), Outlook Classic and 2 more.

5/7 webmail, 3/6 desktop, 5/8 mobile clients support :hover fully.
Unsupported in Gmail iOS, Outlook (New), Outlook Classic, Outlook iOS and 1 more.
Partial in Gmail Android, Outlook 365, behavior differs from browsers, test before relying on it.
Outlook Classic (Word engine, supported to at least 2029) does not fully support :hover, and its replacement changes little here; see the deprecation diff.
Across all clients, only 6 of 298 tracked HTML/CSS features render identically everywhere.

Source: caniemail.com (MIT), via the Emailens engine. Last tested upstream Oct 23, 2019, synced by Emailens Sep 2, 2026.

The :hover pseudo-class applies styles when the user points at an element. It only works in clients that render <style> blocks, since inline styles cannot express pseudo-classes. Outlook on Windows ignores :hover entirely; most webmail clients honor it, with mobile clients being a no-op (no hover surface).

Client Support

Client	Category	Engine	Support
Gmail	webmail	Gmail Web	Supported
Gmail Android	mobile	Gmail Mobile	Partial^{See caveat 1}
Gmail iOS	mobile	Gmail Mobile	Unsupported
Outlook 365	webmail	Outlook Web	Partial^{See caveat 2}
Outlook (New)	desktop	Outlook Web	Unsupported
Outlook Classic	desktop	Microsoft Word	Unsupported
Outlook iOS	mobile	Outlook Mobile	Unsupported
Outlook Android	mobile	Outlook Mobile	Supported
Outlook for Mac	desktop	WebKit	Supported
Apple Mail	desktop	WebKit	Supported
Apple Mail iOS	mobile	WebKit	Supported
Yahoo Mail	webmail	Yahoo	Supported
Yahoo Mail Android	mobile	Yahoo	Supported
Yahoo Mail iOS	mobile	Yahoo	Supported
Samsung Mail	mobile	Samsung	Supported
Thunderbird	desktop	Gecko	Supported
HEY Mail	webmail	WebKit	Supported
Proton Mail	webmail	Proton	Supported
AOL Mail	webmail	AOL	Unsupported
Fastmail	webmail	Fastmail	Supported
Superhuman	desktop	Blink	Unknown

Documented caveats (2)

1.Gmail Android: Partial. Not supported with non Google accounts.
2.Outlook 365: Partial. Only supported on type selectors.

Caveats recorded by caniemail.com (MIT) and carried verbatim, one entry per wording rather than per client.

Client-by-client behaviour for :hover

Fully supports :hover (13): Gmail, Outlook Android, Outlook for Mac, Apple Mail, Apple Mail iOS, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Mail Android, Yahoo Mail iOS, Samsung Mail, Thunderbird, HEY Mail, Proton Mail, Fastmail.

Partial support (2): Gmail Android, Outlook 365. Expect rendering quirks unique to each engine. Partial support typically means a subset of values, an ignored shorthand, or sanitizer-specific rewrites.

No support (5): Gmail iOS, Outlook (New), Outlook Classic, Outlook iOS, AOL Mail. Plan fallbacks for these clients before relying on :hover in production sends.

Behaviour unverified in: Superhuman.

When to use :hover in email

CTA button hover state on web-mode email previews.
Underline-on-hover styling for inline links in newsletter content.
Subtle background-color shifts on interactive cards in modern email designs.

Rendering behaviour and edge cases

Outlook on Windows strips <style> blocks and ignores :hover.
Gmail Web honors :hover when <style> blocks are preserved (which depends on sanitization rules).
Mobile clients have no hover surface , :hover is effectively a no-op.

Recommended fallback strategy

Treat :hover purely as enhancement. The base CTA must look complete and tappable without any hover state. Inline the static appearance and use <style> blocks only for the hover overlay.