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What is a read receipt and where are its settings?

A read receipt is a short automatic message that the recipient’s mail program sends back when they open your email, if the program supports it and the recipient agrees. You set it up in your mail program, not in HawkOpen, which does not use read receipts.

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Your request travels as a hidden note inside the email. The recipient’s program then sends the receipt automatically, asks the recipient, or ignores the request, depending on its settings.

Where to find it: in Outlook, in the Options of a new message, and for all messages in the Tracking settings; in Gmail, under More options in a new message, but only in Google Workspace accounts that allow it. Other providers and webmail services have the option in the compose window, in settings, or not at all.

HawkOpen works differently: it adds an invisible image and tracked links and records when they are requested, only for recipients who consented to tracking by the sender’s company. That needs no reply from the recipient, cannot prove reading either, and is announced by a notice at the end of each tracked email.

Where rules that require consent apply, tracking may start only after that consent has been obtained. The link in the message lets the recipient withdraw consent later.

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Related questions

More in this topic

  • How do I know if someone read my email?

    You can get three signals: a read receipt, if the recipient agrees to send one, a tracking image and a tracked link. None of them proves reading; only a reply or another deliberate action does, and HawkOpen rates opens and clicks as at most “likely” human.

  • Does Gmail have read receipts?

    Only in Google Workspace (work or school) accounts whose administrator has turned it on; personal Gmail accounts do not have read receipts. In personal Gmail you can use a tracker such as HawkOpen instead.

  • Why is the read receipt option missing or not working in Gmail?

    Most often the account is a personal Gmail account, which has no read receipts, or the Workspace administrator has not allowed them. When the option is there, a receipt still arrives only if the recipient’s program supports it and they agree.

  • How can I see if my Gmail message was opened without a Workspace read receipt?

    Use an email tracker. With the HawkOpen extension in Gmail (Chrome or Firefox), the copy of each recipient who consented to tracking gets an invisible image and tracked links; the free plan has no limit on tracked opens and tracks link clicks in 10 emails a month.

  • Why don’t Outlook read receipts arrive?

    A read receipt depends on the recipient: their program has to support it and they, or their settings, have to agree to send it. Personal Gmail, Apple Mail and many phone apps do not answer Outlook’s requests, and an organisation can block receipts for outside senders.

  • How do I enable read receipts in Google Workspace?

    Only an administrator can: in the Google Admin console, in the Gmail user settings under Email read receipts, they allow receipts and choose for which addresses. After that, users request a receipt in each message under More options.

  • Do read receipts work between Gmail and Outlook?

    Sometimes. The request travels with the email, but a receipt comes back only if the recipient’s program supports it and they agree; personal Gmail and many phone apps do not send receipts at all. A tracking image does not depend on the provider, but has limits of its own.

  • Can I check on the mail server or in Thunderbird whether an email was read?

    Not reliably. A server may know that a message in a mailbox was marked as read, but not that a person read it, and no setting can force a recipient to confirm. Thunderbird can request a return receipt, which the recipient can refuse.

  • Can I tell if an email was read without the recipient knowing?

    Not with HawkOpen. It tracks only recipients whose consent is recorded for your company, and every email it tracks ends with a visible notice that it contains tracking elements, with the link “Do not track my activity”; no plan or setting removes it.

  • How do I request a confirmation of receipt for an email?

    In Outlook, open Options in a new message and request a delivery receipt or a read receipt; Gmail offers read receipts only in Workspace accounts. The surest way is to ask the recipient to confirm by replying.

  • Why does my Exchange or Microsoft 365 policy block read receipts?

    Read receipts are controlled by the mail system: in Exchange and Microsoft 365, an administrator can stop receipts going to or coming from outside the organisation, or route them elsewhere. Only that administrator can change it; HawkOpen does not use or alter read receipts.

  • Are read receipts reliable, and is it rude to request one?

    Not very reliable: a receipt arrives only if the recipient’s program supports it and they agree, and it can be sent when a message is merely previewed or marked as read. Whether a request feels rude depends on the relationship; many people find a receipt on routine emails pushy.

  • Do read receipts or email trackers reveal the recipient’s device or location?

    A read receipt is a short message with little more than the time. HawkOpen shows, for each request, its time, category and rule codes, the technical identification the request carried and at most the country of the network, never a city, a street or who the person is.

  • Can I force the recipient to send a read receipt?

    No. A read receipt always depends on the recipient’s program and choice. HawkOpen does not use receipts; it records requests for a tracking image and clicks on tracked links, which have their own limits, and every tracked email says it is tracked.

  • Can I request or turn off read receipts in iPhone Mail?

    Apple Mail on iPhone has no option to request read receipts. HawkOpen has no iPhone app either: it tracks emails you send from the HawkOpen dashboard or with the browser extension on a computer.

  • Do read receipts work for groups and mailing lists?

    Usually not: Gmail, for example, handles receipts only for individual accounts, and a group address has no single reader. HawkOpen avoids the problem by sending each recipient their own copy from the dashboard or a campaign; it cannot tell apart people behind one group address.

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