How to track if someone opens your email

How many times have you waited days, weeks…maybe even months for someone to respond to an email?

At some point, you wonder if they even opened it. Maybe they missed it? Or perhaps they just put it right in the trash. Whatever the case, it’d at least be nice to know if they even opened your.

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Popular email services like Gmail and Outlook will actually relay that info for you if you know the right buttons to push, but you have the right type of account. If not, a third party service may be needed to track your email read receipts.

If you’ve already sent that email, sorry folks, it’s too late.

Third Party Services

As we noted, some third party services will be needed in order to track your email status.

1. Yesware

Yesware, for example, lets you sign up for free and works “in the background of the email client you already use,” meaning you won’t have to navigate any new systems or software.

Yesware will notify you when a recipient reads your email, sure, but it’ll also be able to notify you when a recipient clicks one of your links or opens one of your attached files.

For full services, you’ll have to sign up for one of the site’s paid plans. For personal use, you’d probably want the Yesware Pro plan, which gives you unlimited email tracking, unlimited attachment tracking, and more for $15 a month.

2. Mailtrack

Mailtrack works with Gmail to track the status of your emails. As referenced by Oberlo, “The app adds two check marks to your Gmail account. A single check mark implies the email was sent, while the double check mark indicates that it was opened.” 

Mailtrack’s email status tracking is free to use, but you can also receive more detailed reporting if you want to pay for the pro version of the app.

3. Mixmax

Along with letting notifying you when a recipient opens your email, Mixmax also lets you know how many times it was opened. If you send a group email, the app will tell you when the email was opened and by which recipient, according to Oberlo.

Just as it is with Mailtrack, Mixmax’s basic email status tracking is free, with more detailed features being offered in the app’s paid plans.

How to see if someone opens your email in Gmail

First and foremost, to track Gmail read receipts, you need to be using either a work or school Gmail account in order to do the steps below. Using a regular Gmail account won’t allow you to see whether a recipient has opened your email or not.

1. Compose your email

2. At the bottom of the compose window, select the dotted “more” icon

3. Click “Request read receipt”

You should be notified when the recipient opens your email, though it’s important to note that they may have to approve the read receipt for you to be notified.

How to see if someone opens your email in Microsoft Outlook

1. At the top menu, select “Options”

2. In the sub-menu, select “Request a Read Receipt”

“Additionally, you can also get notifications when your message is successfully delivered by checking ‘Request a Delivery Receipt'” according to USA Today.