As part of WWDC this week, Apple introduced a new MailKit framework for macOS Monterey that enables developers to create Mail app extensions that block content, perform message and composing actions, and help with security.
These new plug-ins have to fall into four categories:
- Compose: Extensions that provide new workflows when composing emails
- Actions: Extensions that apply custom rules to incoming emails, such as an email being color coded, moved to a separate inbox, marked as read, or flagged
- Content Blocking: Extensions that serve as WebKit content blockers for emails based on specific criteria in an email’s HTML code
- Message Security: Extensions that sign, encrypt, and decrypt emails when sending and receiving mail, with signed and encrypted icons below emails
Older mail plug-ins are still supported in macOS Monterey, but will stop being supported in a future release of macOS.