How to Customize Mail Swipe Gestures on macOS 13

Customizing swipe gestures in the native Mail app on macOS 13 Ventura allows you to quickly triage your inbox by assigning your preferred actions—such as archiving, deleting, flagging, or marking emails as read—to left and right swipes on your trackpad or Magic Mouse. This guide walks you through the exact steps to modify these swipe settings directly within Apple Mail.

Steps to Customize Mail Swipe Gestures

  1. Open the Mail app on your Mac running macOS 13.
  2. In the top-left corner of the menu bar, click Mail, then select Settings… (or press the keyboard shortcut Command + ,).
  3. In the Settings window that appears, click the Viewing tab.
  4. Locate the Swipe Left and Swipe Right options near the bottom of the Viewing pane.
  5. Click the dropdown menu next to Swipe Left to choose an action:
    • None
    • Trash
    • Archive
  6. Click the dropdown menu next to Swipe Right to choose an action:
    • None
    • Mark as Read (or Mark as Unread)
  7. Close the Settings window. Your preferences are saved automatically.

How to Use the Gestures

  • Trackpad: Place two fingers on the trackpad and swipe left or right over an email in your message list. Swiping partially reveals the action button; a full swipe across the trackpad triggers the assigned action automatically.
  • Magic Mouse: Use a single finger to swipe left or right across the surface of the mouse over an email in the message list.