Why You Should Ditch That “Sent from My Mobile Device” E-Mail Signature

“Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile”

We’ve all seen some form of this e-mail signature line tied onto some of the messages we received during the past couple of years. In fact, these mobile-device e-mail signatures are now so common that most of us barely even notice them…which is one solid reason why it’s time that we did away with them for good.

But even better reasons exists for why you should ditch with that silly “Sent from my” mobile device signature. And they are as follows.

(Note: This post refers to mobile-device specific e-mail signatures only. It does not in any way suggest that general e-mail signatures, with contact details, etc., should be abandoned.)

The two obvious reasons why you might choose to employ such a mobile-device message signature: 1) To let message recipients know that you were on the go when the message was sent and that any unusual brevity or spelling errors, etc., should be attributed to this and the fact that the message was typed on a small, mobile keyboard; and 2) to let recipients know what type of device you’re using and which wireless carrier you’ve chosen to provide your cellular service.

However, handheld mobile devices are ubiquitous at this point in time; almost everyone has one. Literally, the majority of my coworkers, all of my immediate family members, and 80 percent of my friends have smartphones. Those that are still using feature phones mostly do so on purpose, as a way of stating that they don’t want or need smartphones…but that’s another story.

The point is that many, if not most, of the messages we receive nowadays are sent from mobile devices. So it’s redundant to specify this within all the messages we send. And sending a message from your smartphone is really no longer an excuse for awkward writing, poor spelling or excessive grammar errors—in fact, it wasn’t ever a good excuse for any of these things.

If you can’t type a message on your mobile device without horribly misspelling every other word, you really ought to spend some time practicing on your smartphone’s keyboard. Or maybe even get a new device with a keyboard that’s better suited to your needs. And if you can’t take the time to send a message that reads smoothly and without spelling/grammar errors, you should wait until you can. Otherwise, these brief or messy messages can give the impression that you just don’t care, and that is not appropriate personally or professionally.

Oh, and, nobody cares what kind of device you’re using or which carrier charges you too much for wireless service. Well, nobody except for you…so there’s really no reason to share this information via a mobile device signature.

How do I delete or change my mobile device e-mail signature, you ask? The process is different for every mobile platform, but you can usually just go into your e-mail client settings and modify an e-mail signature field. It’s a bit more complicated for BlackBerry users, especially if your device is on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), but I recently wrote a tutorial on the subject that details the process.

To sum that all up, using a mobile device e-mail signature makes you look like an amateur. And it certainly doesn’t make up for excessive spelling errors or other grammar mistakes.

So, do yourself and your contacts a favor and get rid of that mobile device e-mail signature, huh?

AS

(NOT sent from my BlackBerry or via any wireless carrier.)