Outlook-based email client that has read status/receipts feature?

July 5, 2019 12:34 PM

I understand that this is not without some controversy. I'm a research scientist with literally hundreds of different collaborators, and read receipts for email would make my life SO MUCH EASIER. It seems like there are solutions for Gmail (Mailtrack being one of them, as I understand it). But my institutional email is Outlook-based and I was wondering if there was a similar solution? I'd prefer non-web-based software (Mac OSX).
posted by baptismal to Technology (8 answers total)

There's an option at least in my version of outlook to request a read receipt (file>options>mail>tracking). It is optional for the recipient to respond to the request though, and would be unusual, not sure if it might be offputting to some. I've only ever seen one person use this routinely and I didn't mind sending the confirmation - if I recall it was just a popup box to click. Someone with a busier schedule might not like sharing that they've read your email, though.
posted by randomnity at 12:46 PM on July 5, 2019

Response by poster: Yes! I have read about this feature, but I'd prefer something that wasn't annoyingly prompting the person to click through.
posted by baptismal at 12:47 PM on July 5, 2019

What you want is what everyone else does not, and many thousands of engineering hours of effort spent trying to prevent. (Read-receipt without recipient agreeing to it)

Think about it this way - Outlook is very widely used in the corporate space - if someone were able to get this to work, it would be shady email-marketers wildest dreams come true.

Instead of putting the content in your message - you could put a link to the content which is actually hosted on a website - then if you have authentication/login to view, you know who opened it and when. The email then becomes a notification that information has been updated/changed elsewhere.
posted by jkaczor at 1:08 PM on July 5, 2019 [9 favorites]

Please consider something that requires positive action on the part of the reader. First, that would eliminate the creepy ethical problem, and second, it gives [more] reliable data. With the current "secret" style read receipts, I can fake the system both ways - I can read an email without sending the receipt, or I can send the receipt without reading.

If your colleagues all work for the same institution as you, then perhaps everyone has already signed away their right to privacy, and agreed to be spied on, so it might be less of an issue. In that case, your IT department would be a good place to look for help.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 1:28 PM on July 5, 2019 [4 favorites]

I realize this isn't actually answering your question, but as anecdata: I'm an academic scientist at an institution whose email system will automatically honor read-receipt requests. I have created an elaborate filtration scheme for my email that not only prevents the read-receipts being sent, it also lets me know who requested them. I have had this system in place for the past 8 years, and can tell you that: (1) The vast majority of the read-receipt-requestors are paper mills, so that's the company you'd be in by doing this; and (2) when it is someone legit, I have actively ceased collaborating with them, because their act of requesting a read-receipt made it clear that they view me as answerable to them rather than an equal. Not once have I regretted this decision, even though it's probably meant fewer grant $s.

YMMV, but be aware you run the risk of rubbing your collaborators the wrong way.
posted by Westringia F. at 2:35 PM on July 5, 2019 [16 favorites]

I’m wondering what the end goal is. Is it to confirm that the person has received the email, or that they have read and absorbed it? Or is it that you need to follow up? Because it might be best to create a good tracking system instead, otherwise the fact that an email was momentarily clicked on doesn’t provide that much information.

I always refuse them too (I’m not an academic).
posted by warriorqueen at 8:32 PM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

There is no way you can accomplish this that isn't invasive and creepy, I'm afraid, and even then your desire is enormously easy to thwart for anyone with a minimal degree of technical savvy.

IOW, don't be that guy.
posted by uberchet at 6:48 AM on July 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

also, people can just click the button to mark as read without actually reading anything. it's easy to get someone to confirm receipt, but nearly impossible to confirm something has been read and dealt with. (have been using outlook in a business setting since 2002).
posted by misanthropicsarah at 9:02 AM on July 8, 2019