Mailicity / Compare / Mailicity vs Apple Assistive Access

For families weighing the free option

Mailicity vs Apple Assistive Access: how they differ, and why you might want both.

Apple Assistive Access is a thoughtful, free feature of iPadOS that simplifies the iPad for the people you look after. Mailicity is a calm, allowlisted email inbox that runs alongside it. They solve different problems. Most families end up using both.

Start your free trial → See the side-by-side

Free during early access · Designed to run alongside Apple Assistive Access · iPadOS 17 or later

Both, together

9:41 ● ● ●

Calls

Messages

Camera

Photos

Music

Mailicity

⌗The short version

Two products, doing different jobs.

A skim-friendly summary before the long read.

Software · email layer

Mailicity

The email layer Apple hasn't built. Wraps an existing email account, applies a family-managed allowlist, and presents a calm inbox on the iPad. Free during early access; paid subscription later.

iPadOS feature · simplifies the device

Apple Assistive Access

Simplifies the iPad itself — bigger buttons, calmer home screen, restricted to a small set of approved apps. Free, built into iPadOS 17 and later, no third-party software needed.

You don't have to choose. Most families turn on Assistive Access and install Mailicity.

· · ·

§Section 1 · Credit, in full

What Apple Assistive Access does.

Apple Assistive Access is a feature inside iPadOS, introduced in version 17, in 2023. It works well. If your parent is finding the standard iPad overwhelming, turning it on is the first thing we'd suggest before anything else.

When you turn it on, the iPad transforms into a deliberately simpler experience — bigger icons, larger text, a smaller and more focused home screen, and only the apps you've explicitly allowed.

Apple has built specially-simplified versions of seven core apps for Assistive Access: Calls (which combines Phone and FaceTime), Messages, Camera, Photos, Music, Magnifier, and the Apple TV app. Each one strips out complexity that would confuse the people Assistive Access is designed for: contacts can be restricted to a small set; Messages can use an emoji-only keyboard; Photos shows everything in a flat grid.

It's a thoughtful piece of work. It's free. It works well.

There's just one notable thing missing.

¶Section 2 · The gap

There is no Mail app inside Apple Assistive Access.

You can add the regular iPad Mail app to an Assistive Access setup — Assistive Access lets you include any iPadOS app, even ones that aren't optimised for it. But the regular Mail app inside Assistive Access is the same regular Mail app: the same dense inbox, the same flood of marketing emails, the same scams, the same small print. It's also missing some functionality even Apple expected to be there — Apple Community threads have documented that links inside emails don't work properly when Mail is run inside Assistive Access, with no fix as of mid-2026.

We don't think Apple has forgotten Mail. We think they made a deliberate choice. Email is hard to simplify well — it has to connect to Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, and a dozen other providers, each with their own protocols and quirks. The protective decisions (what's a scam, what's important, what's a real bank alert versus a fake one) are family-specific in a way that Apple, with their universal-product philosophy, isn't well-positioned to make.

So Apple has solved calls and photos. Mail is the gap.

✶Section 3 · Where we fit

Mailicity slots into the gap.

We are, deliberately, just an email app. We don't try to replicate what Assistive Access already does well.

We don't have a Calls app, or a Photos app, or anything else outside email. The intended setup is: turn on Apple Assistive Access for the iPad in general; install Mailicity for the email part.

From your parent's perspective, the whole thing reads as one calm, oversized experience. The Apple-built apps and the Mailicity app share a similar design philosophy — big type, calm colours, large touch targets, minimal navigation. We've gone out of our way to make Mailicity feel like a Mailicity-shaped sibling to the Assistive Access apps.

⌗Section 4 · Side-by-side

The honest comparison.

Strengths listed for both products. Pick whichever fits your situation — or use them together.

	Software · email layer Mailicity Just email, done well.	iPadOS feature Apple Assistive Access The whole iPad, simplified.
What it is	An email app	A simplified iPad mode
Where it runs	iPad Android coming	iPad, iPhone
Cost	Free during early access	Free (built into iPadOS 17+)
Email	Calm inbox, allowlisted contacts wraps existing account	Use the regular Mail app inside AA (not simplified)
Phone / video calls	FaceTime or Zoom on the same iPad	Simplified Calls app built in
Messages	Use Messages, or Mailicity's reply	Simplified Messages app built in
Photos	Inline in email	Simplified Photos app built in
Family admin	Web app, multi-admin, audit log	Set up on the device, by the person installing
Scope	Just email, done well	The whole iPad, simplified
Honest read	Does one job — email — better than Mail inside Assistive Access can.	Does six or seven jobs well; the whole device feels calmer.

They're complementary, not competing. Use both.

§Section 5 · Setting up both

In order, about 15–20 minutes.

If you're starting from scratch with an iPad for your Mum or Dad, this is the cleanest setup order.

Turn on Apple Assistive Access first.

Settings → Accessibility → Assistive Access. Walk through Apple's setup; choose row or grid layout based on what they're more comfortable with.

Add the Apple-built simplified apps.

Pick the ones that match what they actually use: Calls (essential), Messages, Photos, Camera. Skip the ones they don't need.

Install Mailicity on the iPad.

Install it before turning Assistive Access on, or exit Assistive Access first to install it from the App Store.

Add Mailicity to the Assistive Access app list.

Now it shows up on the home screen alongside Calls and Photos — exactly like the hero image at the top of this page.

Pair Mailicity with the six-digit code.

You get the code from your admin app. Type it once; the iPad stays paired forever.

Hand the iPad back.

From this point, your parent has a single home screen with Calls, Photos, Messages, and Mailicity. That's the whole iPad to them.

The Mailicity-specific part is around five minutes. The rest is Apple's setup.

An honest aside

When Mailicity isn't the right answer.

There are situations where Apple Assistive Access alone — without Mailicity — is enough. Be honest with yourself about which one you're in. We'd rather you not pay us than pay us for something you don't need.

Your parent doesn't really use email anymore. Calls, photos, and Messages cover what they actually do.
Your parent uses email but only with about three people, all of whom are in their iCloud Contacts, and they almost never get scam emails. (Rarer than people think, but possible.)
You're comfortable with the regular Mail app inside Assistive Access despite its limitations.
The person you look after doesn't currently get scams or marketing emails at all — genuinely happens for people who've kept their email address quiet.

If any of those describe your situation, Apple's free option may be enough. Try Assistive Access alone first. Come back to Mailicity when you find the email is still the noisy part of the iPad.

£Section 7 · A fair question

Why pay for a layer when the free one is right there?

A reasonable thing to ask. Two honest reasons.

Email is genuinely complicated.

What Mailicity does behind the scenes — connecting to Gmail or Outlook via IMAP or OAuth, maintaining a moderation queue, refreshing tokens, handling bounces, applying the allowlist with multi-admin support — is real software with real running costs. The reason Apple hasn't shipped a simplified Mail app for Assistive Access is, we think, exactly that it's a harder integration than Calls or Photos. Mailicity is the team that's chosen to do that work.

It's a focused product, not a feature.

Apple Assistive Access works for everyone with cognitive disabilities, broadly. Mailicity is built for one specific situation — adult children setting up email for an older parent — and that focus shows up in details. The accessibility tiers are tunable per family member. The admin app is built for sibling collaboration. The design is specifically warm and domestic, not clinical. None of these would make sense in a feature inside iPadOS.

If you're happy with Assistive Access alone, stay with it. We won't argue. For the families who want more on the email side, Mailicity is the thing we built.

Set up Assistive Access first. Add Mailicity for the email part.

Free during early access. Five minutes once Assistive Access is configured.

Start your free trial →

Designed to run alongside Apple Assistive Access · Works on any iPad with iPadOS 17 or later · Built by a son for his Mum

?Questions, answered

For families comparing the two.

Will Apple build a simplified Mail app eventually?

We have no idea. They've had three years to do it and haven't. If they do, our market shrinks — but Apple's version of a feature like this tends to be the generic one; the focused version usually has room. (See Things 3 vs Reminders, Calendars 5 vs Calendar, Drafts vs Notes — Apple ships the universal, focused third parties carve out a market.)

Does Mailicity require Apple Assistive Access to be on?

No. Mailicity works on a regular iPad too. Most families turn on Assistive Access because it covers the rest of the device better than the standard iPad does; we recommend it but don't depend on it.

What's the absolute cheapest way to do this?

Apple Assistive Access alone, free. If that doesn't solve the email problem (and for most families it doesn't), Mailicity is the next step.

What does Mailicity look like inside Assistive Access?

The Mailicity app, like all third-party apps inside Assistive Access, runs in its original design — it doesn't shrink or get re-styled by Apple. Because Mailicity is already designed for large type, big touch targets, and minimal complexity, it looks consistent with the Assistive Access apps rather than out of place.

Can I exit Assistive Access without losing my Mailicity setup?

Yes. Mailicity's state lives in the app itself. Triple-click to exit Assistive Access; Mailicity keeps working normally.