Do you want to make sure that your e-mails arrive properly and that they have also been read by the recipient? Then you can set a read receipt. Many email programs support this feature. We explain how to enable read receipts in three popular mail tools.
gmail
Gmail does not offer read receipts by itself. This is only possible with a special account that is created through school or work. These are accounts that look like this: [email protected] instead of @gmail.nl.
If you use such an e-mail address, setting up a read receipt is quite simple: when composing your e-mail you will see a small downward-pointing triangle at the bottom right. This is the function 'more options', click on it and then on 'request read confirmation'. Note that the person you're sending the message to may need to approve the read receipt before you receive a notification.
In the most likely case that you don't use a Google work or school account, you will need to download an extension to set up a read receipt with Gmail. You can use the Mailtrack extension for this. You can read how to download and install this here.
Outlook
With a desktop program such as Outlook you do have the opportunity to set a read receipt. Recipients (who also use Outlook) have the right to refuse this read receipt, so you will never have 100% certainty.
You also have the option to set up a confirmation of receipt. You do this as follows: in Outlook you go to 'file' in the top right, then click on 'options' on the left and then select 'e-mail'. In the e-mail options, go to 'check' and, if desired, check the receipt and/or the read receipt.
Whitelist email addresses
Read receipts are a great way to ensure that important emails actually reach the recipient. But you may also want to make sure that you don't miss any emails. Therefore, it can pay to 'whitelist' email addresses, so that they never end up in the spam folder. You can read how to do that in this article.
Don't you want to constantly ask everyone for a read receipt? Then it can also be much simpler in one e-mail. Open a new e-mail and click one or more boxes under 'options' for a receipt or read confirmation.
Yahoo! Mail
Also at Yahoo! Mail, it is not possible to set up a read receipt in the online environment, just like with Gmail. What you can do to work around this problem is to add your Yahoo account to your Outlook email program.
You do this by clicking on 'Add account' via 'File' under 'Account'. Then your Yahoo! Mail linked to Outlook, which makes it possible to use the receipt and read confirmation. This trick also works for Gmail accounts.
Really read?
If you receive a read receipt, it doesn't always mean that the recipient has read the message. How read receipts work depends on the email system the recipient uses. For example, someone may mark an email as read, even though they have not opened the email. Keep that in mind.
