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CSS property · data last changed 10 Nov 2026

light-dark in email clients

Works in 3 of 21. Not supported in Gmail, Gmail Android, Gmail iOS and 8 more. Partial in Samsung Mail, HEY Mail and Proton Mail. Untested in Outlook Android, Yahoo Mail Android, Fastmail and 1 more.

Your reader in Outlook Classic sees the email without light-dark, even if it looks right where you tested it.

caniemail (MIT) via @emailens/engine 0.18.22

What to do instead in Outlook Classic

There is no drop-in fix for light-dark in Outlook Classic. Design so the email still reads without it.

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light-dark is not among the 24 features we have screenshotted on real installs. The ones we have →

All 21 clients, problems first

ClientSupport
Gmail Not supported
Gmail Android Not supported
Gmail iOS Not supported
Outlook 365 Not supported
Outlook (New) Not supported
Outlook Classic Not supported
Outlook iOS Not supported
Outlook for Mac Not supported
Yahoo Mail Not supported
Yahoo Mail iOS Not supported
AOL Mail Not supported
Samsung Mail Partial See caveat 2
HEY Mail Partial See caveat 3
Proton Mail Partial See caveat 3
Outlook Android Untested
Yahoo Mail Android Untested
Fastmail Untested
Superhuman Untested
Apple Mail Works See caveat 1
Apple Mail iOS Works
Thunderbird Works

Caveats (3)

  1. 1. Apple Mail: Only supported if you’ve updated your OS with Safari 17.5 or later.
  2. 2. Samsung Mail: Partial. Not supported with Hotmail/Outlook accounts.
  3. 3. HEY Mail, Proton Mail: Buggy. The function is supported but the color stays light even in dark mode.

Caveats as recorded by caniemail (MIT), one entry per wording.

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caniemail (MIT) via @emailens/engine 0.18.22 · tested upstream 14 Aug 2024 · data last changed 10 Nov 2026 · Outlook (New) cells are the engine's mapping