HTML Elements

<textarea>

HTML element · 12 supported, 2 partial, 6 unsupported across 21 clients

12 of 21 email clients render <textarea> fully (Sep 2, 2026 data); it breaks outright in Outlook (New), Outlook Classic, Outlook Android and 3 more.

5/7 webmail, 2/6 desktop, 5/8 mobile clients support <textarea> fully.
Unsupported in Outlook (New), Outlook Classic, Outlook Android, Yahoo Mail Android and 2 more.
Partial in Thunderbird, Proton Mail, behavior differs from browsers, test before relying on it.
Outlook Classic (Word engine, supported to at least 2029) does not fully support <textarea>, 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 Sep 10, 2019, synced by Emailens Sep 2, 2026.

Client Support

Client	Category	Engine	Support
Gmail	webmail	Gmail Web	Supported
Gmail Android	mobile	Gmail Mobile	Supported
Gmail iOS	mobile	Gmail Mobile	Supported
Outlook 365	webmail	Outlook Web	Supported
Outlook (New)	desktop	Outlook Web	Unsupported
Outlook Classic	desktop	Microsoft Word	Unsupported
Outlook iOS	mobile	Outlook Mobile	Supported
Outlook Android	mobile	Outlook Mobile	Unsupported^{See caveat 1}
Outlook for Mac	desktop	WebKit	Supported
Apple Mail	desktop	WebKit	Supported
Apple Mail iOS	mobile	WebKit	Supported^{See caveat 2}
Yahoo Mail	webmail	Yahoo	Supported
Yahoo Mail Android	mobile	Yahoo	Unsupported^{See caveat 1}
Yahoo Mail iOS	mobile	Yahoo	Supported
Samsung Mail	mobile	Samsung	Unsupported^{See caveat 1}
Thunderbird	desktop	Gecko	Partial^{See caveat 3}
HEY Mail	webmail	WebKit	Unsupported
Proton Mail	webmail	Proton	Partial^{See caveat 1}
AOL Mail	webmail	AOL	Supported
Fastmail	webmail	Fastmail	Supported
Superhuman	desktop	Blink	Unknown

Documented caveats (3)

1.Outlook Android, Yahoo Mail Android, Samsung Mail, Proton Mail: Buggy. A number of android clients will not show the keyboard when the input is clicked. Copy and pasting text works.
2.Apple Mail iOS: Buggy. Screen jumps when input is in focus.
3.Thunderbird: Buggy. Interacting with the element submits the form it belongs in.

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

Client-by-client behaviour for <textarea>

Fully supports <textarea> (12): Gmail, Gmail Android, Gmail iOS, Outlook 365, Outlook iOS, Outlook for Mac, Apple Mail, Apple Mail iOS, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Mail iOS, AOL Mail, Fastmail.

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

No support (6): Outlook (New), Outlook Classic, Outlook Android, Yahoo Mail Android, Samsung Mail, HEY Mail. Plan fallbacks for these clients before relying on <textarea> in production sends.

Behaviour unverified in: Superhuman.