Please note: this article is about the Gmail Mobile App made by Google that can be download on the App Stores for iPhones or Android devices. The tricky thing is that it is possible to use a different email app while still using Gmail as your email server. Right now we are less concerned with what email server you are using and more concerned about which App you are using to compose and send emails. Please make sure this is the app you are currently using, the screenshot below should help clarify.
The Gmail mobile apps have some quirks and confusing elements when adding an email signatures. We have written the Google team several times to try to see if they have plans for improvements, but right now this is the current state we are in:
Technically the iOS (iPhone) version of the Gmail Mobile App only supports a really basic "plain text" mobile signature. Plain text means that the signature cannot be any formatting like bold, links, text colors, or images. BUT, the iOS version of the Gmail app offers a brilliant workaround that works well in almost all situations. If you turn off the mobile signature, and make sure you have an email signature set up in the Gmail website, then that signature will be automatically applied upon sending an email.
Unfortunately the Android Gmail app version is lacking. It does NOT pull signatures from the Gmail website automatically like the iOS version. It seems to support HTML signatures that can include formatting, but images don't paste in correctly and complex email signatures really don't work well enough to use. This is odd, considering you would think that Google would have a more vested interest in making the Android version better than the iOS version, but this doesn't seem to be the case here.
If you want to make a well designed email signature, we would recommend using a tool like our email signature generator. This tool allows you to choose from a set of starting templates and customize them by changing fonts, colors, images and adding additional fields. It creates the HTML code for you so you don't even have to worry about it!
Here is a step by step process of how to add your email signature to the Gmail iOS (iPhone) Mobile App:
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First, open the Gmail mobile app on your iPhone. Then tap the three lines menu icon toward the top left of the screen.
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Scroll to the bottom of the sidebar that comes out and find the Settings button and tap it.
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Tap the account you want to change. Then on the next screen find Signature Settings.
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Turn OFF the Mobile Signature setting! You do not want it to be on, and it may have been off already.
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Now, on your computer, visit the Gmail website and follow our instructions for setting up your email signature in the Gmail web app if you haven't already. Be sure to set up this new signature as the default like Step 7 talks about. Make sure to save your changes!
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Now return to the Gmail mobile app on your iPhone. As a test, compose a new email to yourself. As you are composing the email you will NOT SEE the email signature at the bottom of the message. But upon sending the message and receiving it you should see that the email signature you set up in the Gmail website has been automatically added to the bottom of the message.
That's it! You are finished! If you have any trouble you may want to review Gmail's instructions for setting up email signatures on their platform.