HTML element · data last changed 10 Nov 2026
<span> in email clients
Works in 20 of 21. Untested in Superhuman.
caniemail (MIT) via @emailens/engine 0.18.22
No signup · Five clients free, Outlook Classic included · All 21 with an account
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<span> is not among the 24 features we have screenshotted on real installs. The ones we have →
All 21 clients, problems first
| Client | Support |
|---|---|
| Superhuman | Untested |
Works in 20: Gmail, Gmail Android, Gmail iOS and 17 more. Show all
| Client | Support |
|---|---|
| Gmail | Works |
| Gmail Android | Works |
| Gmail iOS | Works |
| Outlook 365 | Works |
| Outlook (New) | Works |
| Outlook Classic | Works |
| Outlook iOS | Works |
| Outlook Android | Works |
| Outlook for Mac | Works |
| Apple Mail | Works |
| Apple Mail iOS | Works |
| Yahoo Mail | Works |
| Yahoo Mail Android | Works |
| Yahoo Mail iOS | Works |
| Samsung Mail | Works |
| Thunderbird | Works |
| HEY Mail | Works |
| Proton Mail | Works |
| AOL Mail | Works |
| Fastmail | Works |
How <span> behaves
The <span> element is a generic inline container and is supported in every email client. It is most useful for applying inline styles (color, font-size, font-weight) to a portion of text without breaking the surrounding flow. Some clients strip <span> styling under aggressive sanitization, so critical inline styling should also be applied on a wrapping <font> or <strong> tag where appropriate.
- Spans inherit display: inline by default and cannot accept block-level styles like width or padding-top reliably.
- Outlook Classic respects span inline styles but occasionally drops them when the span sits at the start of a list item.
- Gmail rewrites class attributes on spans, so class-based styling from <style> blocks is fragile.
Apply inline styles directly on <span> elements for color or font tweaks. For block-level effects, wrap spans in a <td> or <div> instead. Combine <span style="..."> with the deprecated <font> tag for double coverage on color in legacy Outlook.
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