Unlike text messages which come with read receipts, blue ticks, and status updates, knowing whether or not a person has read your email is pretty tricky. For some, this can be important because if you know the person has read your email but has yet to reply, then you can proceed to the next step.
However, if they haven’t read your email, then perhaps they are busy and you can give them a bit more time before sending a follow up. Thankfully, there are ways to track whether or not a person has read your email, so check out this guide if you’d like to learn how to go about doing that.
Microsoft Outlook
If you use Microsoft Outlook to send your emails, the good news is that Microsoft has actually built in an email read receipt feature in the software, and all you’ll need to do is turn it on and you’re good to go.
- Go to File > Options > Mail
- Under Tracking, select either Delivery receipt confirming the message was delivered to the recipient’s e-mail server OR Read receipt confirming the recipient viewed the message checkbox.
- Click OK and you’re good to go.
Note that this method will apply read receipt requests to ALL your emails sent from Outlook. If you don’t see the need to track each and every single email, there is the option of tracking single emails.
- Compose a new email select the checkbox under Options > Tracking > Request a Read Receipt
- Finish up writing your email and send it, and you will be notified when the user reads your email
Google’s Gmail
With Gmail, Google does allow for email tracking, but unfortunately the feature is only available for those who are under the G Suite program. This means if you have a Gmail account that’s for personal use, you won’t be able to use the built-in tracker (but not to worry, we’ll list alternative methods below).
However, if you do have a G Suite account, then these are the steps you can follow to get read receipts for your emails.
- Compose a new email in Gmail
- At the bottom of the Compose window, click More > Request read receipt
- Once you’re done writing your email, hit send and you’ll be notified when your email has been read.
Mailtrack
Mailtrack is a browser extension that at the moment, only works with Google Chrome. How it tracks email is similar to how messengers track read messages, by displaying a single tick if your email was sent but not opened, and a double tick that shows an email has been opened (and presumably read).
Like we said, Mailtrack is free to use but the problem is that emails will now contain a “Sent with Mailtrack” signature, which can be removed at $5 a month. The Pro subscription will also unlock additional features that businesses and professionals might be able to appreciate, but the free version should be good enough for individuals and private use.
If you’re interested in checking it out, you can head on over to the Chrome Web Store to install it.
Filed in . Read more about GMail, Google, Microsoft, Outlook and Privacy.