Gmail can ask other users to confirm that they have read your emails. Here’s how to do it on desktop and mobile.
The reading confirmation in Gmail is the ideal way to know if the recipient opened and read the email we sent. Generally, this system is not widely used in personal environments, but it is popular with business users. However, any user can request a confirmation of reading, either officially or with an extension. How?
Acknowledgment in Gmail 2021
The information in this section only applies to business Gmail accounts. The steps to request an acknowledgment in Gmail are very simple. All you need to do is the following:
- Open Gmail. You must do it from your computer, in the desktop version.
- Click Compose to create a new email.
- Compose your email as normal, but do not send it.
- Go to the bottom right of the new email window and click More options.
- Select Request read confirmation.
This way you will have requested an acknowledgment from your recipient. But, there are a few things to note about this feature.
- The read confirmations will appear in the Gmail inbox, i.e. in received.
- The read receipt request is not infallible. In many cases, the other user will have to approve the sending of the confirmation and you may never know that they have read the email, even if they have read it. Therefore, not receiving the confirmation does not always indicate that the recipient has not read the mail.
- Read receipts are not certificates of delivery. Email acknowledgments cannot be trusted completely. Basically, every provider, mail application, or device is different. So you may send an acknowledgment simply by marking the mail as read, even if it hasn’t even been opened. There is also the possibility that some mobile devices do not use IMAP and therefore do not send confirmation.
In addition to all these points, you should know that the Gmail read confirmation is not available in the following cases:
- When you send a message to an alias or distribution list.
- When the GSuite account administrator has limited this function.
- When the recipient does not use IMAP access and opts for POP or similar access.
- When the recipient confirms reading with a mail client that uses the IMAP protocol manually and not automatically.
Gmail read confirmation Extension
The function explained in this article is only available in the desktop version of Gmail and for professional users. However, you can use an extension that enables this feature on mobile and for all users. We are referring to Mailtrack for iOS and Android. How can you install it? Here’s how:
- In the right sidebar, where the Google Keep and Google Calendar icons are displayed, click on the button represented by the Plus (+) symbol.
- In the add-on search engine, type Mailtrack.
- Install the add-on in Gmail.
Now, you will be able to request reading confirmations easily without having a professional account and from any device.