iTrackMail - App Review

If you use Outlook, as well as various other mail clients, you can know when your email is opened (obviously it is assumed that it is read). There is no such facility within the iOS email App. This neat little utility allows you to have a better idea of the fate of your message.

The end is achieved by embedding an image in your email and then checking it is accessed, which it will be when your email is opened.

Now for the ACIDS test:

Aesthetics
You need to firstly allow push notifications in your settings, with the usual choice of alert style (none, banners, alerts), as well as whether or not to use badge icons, sounds, and allow viewing in the lock screen. This is a once only setting, although you can obviously change it whenever you want.

You write an email from within the App, in the normal way, except that you are prompted for the subject of your email (rather than just entering it). You now have the standard address choices and the text area. This includes the warning to "Write your email above here as usual. This is the tracking image. Do not delete. This image will automatically change"

You then send your email exactly as usual.

Once the email has been read, you receive a notification that "This email has been read once", or more, as appropriate.

The only thing the recipient sees that is not as usual is the (image) text "This email sent by iTrackMail" and if the recipient clicks on it he will be taken to the App order on iTunes.

Cost
The App is free and is effectively subsidised by the "This email sent by iTrackMail" image which is displayed. You can choose to upgrade, for a modest fee, and this message will no longer be visible.

Indispensability
This depends on your view that a message was displayed/read, and the knowledge that the system is not absolutely foolproof, so you may think a message has not been received when in fact, it has, and vice versa.

Dependability
As stated above, you cannot be 100% sure of delivery but, it is an excellent indicator. It also appears that any signatures that you have set will not be automatically to your emails, so they will need copying and pasting.

Security
There is the question of your email being tracked but, far more important, and possibly of far greater interest to you, is the delivery information. When you revive a read notification, you can select it and get information on the date and time (obviously) but also IP address, browser, country and region. As you have the IP address, much more (and more detailed) information can then be obtained from a third party.

ACIDS Test Rating:

Use with care but the IP address is real snooping.

To find out how the ACIDS Test works, click here.

You can get iTrackMail here and support for the App here.