The iPhone's default Mail app conveniently lets you perform common actions — like marking them as read, flagging, and even deleting them — with a simple swipe to the left or right.
What's confusing though is that by default, you can't actually delete messages this way. Instead, your Mail app will "Archive" them — removing them from your Inbox, but keeping the data.
Archiving your messages will keep them around if you need them later, but can quickly stuff up your phone with old files.
If you want to swipe to delete, you'll have to enable it in the Settings app. Here's how.
How to swipe to delete messages in your iPhone's Mail app
The swipe options for the Mail app are in Settings. Here's how to customize them.
1. Start the Settings app and tap "Mail."
2. Tap "Accounts."
3. In the Accounts list, tap the email account you want to add the deleting option to. You'll have to enable it in each account manually.
4. On the next screen, tap "Account" at the top of the page.
5. Tap "Advanced."
6. Finally, on the Advanced page, in the "Move Discarded Messages Into" section, tap "Deleted Mailbox."
7. Tap "Account" in the top-left, and then "Done" in the top-right to save your changes.
Now, when you swipe to the left, you should see the "Trash" option, which lets you delete the message.
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