Patent ID: 8239458

Claim:
A method of ascertaining whether an electronic mail application has not received an electronic mail message, the method comprising acts of: sending, to a notification service, a request to receive electronic mail notifications, the request sent by a user device of a recipient user that is an intended recipient of the electronic mail message, each electronic mail notification being separate from a corresponding electronic mail message and indicating that the corresponding electronic mail message has been sent to the recipient user; receiving, by the user device of the recipient user, at least one notification retrieved from a notification list of the notification service, the at least one notification indicating that a first electronic mail message has been sent to the recipient user; determining, by the user device of the recipient user, whether the first electronic mail message indicated by the at least one notification has not been received by the electronic mail application of the user device of the recipient user by comparing the at least one notification to an email list of electronic mail messages received by the user device of the recipient user, thereby determining failed delivery of the first electronic mail message; determining, by the user device of the recipient user, an elapsed time since the first electronic mail message was sent, based on a time stamp included in the at least one notification, the elapsed time being indicative of whether the first electronic mail message was lost or was delayed; and in response to the user device of the recipient user determining that the first electronic mail message was not received, the user device of the recipient user notifying a sender of the first electronic mail message that the first electronic mail message was not received.