iPhone tip: How to see more (or less) of the messages in your email inbox

By default, your iPhone’s email app lets you peek at the first two lines of text in the list of messages sitting in your inbox—enough to give you a taste of what’s inside without opening the actual message.

But here’s the thing: you can, if you wish, boost the size of the message “preview” in the iPhone’s email inbox, or shrink it down to nothing to squeeze more messages into the inbox view.

Don't want any message preview at all? You can do that, too.

Here’s how to do it:

• Tap Settings, then “Mail, Contacts, Calendars,” scroll down to the Mail section, and tap Preview.
• Next, choose how many lines of text you’d like to see in the message preview window—anything from None to 5.
• Go back to your email inbox and take a look. Like what you see? Then you’re all set.

Keep in mind that the Preview setting your choose will apply to all the inboxes and message folders for your various email accounts, not to mention email notifications on your iPhone’s lock screen (assuming you’ve enabled them).

Note: This tip also works on the iPad and iPod Touch.

Have an iPhone question? Post it in the comments below!