Read receipts: how to know if your email was opened
In short
While writing, press the ✓✓ “Track” button: that email will show ✓ when the server accepts it and ✓✓ when the recipient opens it, with a notification on the first open. Tracking is off by default; in Settings you can have it start on for every new message.
How do I track a message?#
- Open a new message or a reply.
- In the composer bar, press ✓✓ Track: it turns into Tracked. Press it again if you don’t want to track that message.
- Send. In your sent mail folder, the message shows its status.
On Android, turn on Track opening ✓✓ in the composer. Ticks are shared across all your devices: an email tracked from the PC shows its ticks on the phone too, and vice versa. You’ll find them all under Tools → Tracking on the PC and Tools → Tracking on the phone.
What do ✓ and ✓✓ mean?#
- ✓ Sent: the mail server accepted the message.
- ✓ Delivered (solid tick): the first signal arrived from the recipient’s side.
- ✓✓ Opened: the recipient opened it; next to it you see the time of the first open and, when you hover, how many opens.
- On the first open you get a notification (“Read: …”), only once per email, even if you sent it from your other device. Details in Notifications.
- With Tracking Pro you also see link clicks.
What counts as an open, the full timeline and the Tracking view are explained in How email tracking works.
How do I turn it on for every message?#
In Settings → Mail, turn on Track sent emails by default. Every new message will start with tracking on, and you can still turn it off for a single message. On the phone the option is called Track sent emails by default, in Settings → Mail. In both apps it’s off by default.
How many emails can I track?#
| Plan | Tracked emails per month |
|---|---|
| Free | 5 (with the line “Sent with Mailamber” at the bottom) |
| Plus | 500 |
| Premium | 1,000 |
| With Tracking Pro | unlimited |
The count resets on the 1st of every month, and you can see it in This month’s usage, in Settings. If you run out, the message goes out normally but without tracking (on the phone, the app tells you before sending).
Why does an email show as opened when it hasn’t been read?#
Tracking uses an invisible image: an email counts as “opened” when the recipient’s email program downloads its images. Mailamber doesn’t count security scanners, link previews, your own views or the automatic opens of Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, which show up separately as “Likely automatic open (Apple)” and never as ✓✓. Recipients who block images aren’t seen at all. That’s why the ticks are a hint, not proof of reading: details in How email tracking works.