There are services available that let the user know if someone has read the email sent to the recipient. Knowing if the recipient has read the sent message has to be understood in the context that the sender may want to know if there is a need for a follow-up email message. Or the sender may like to know if the message reached the inbox of the receiver. Sometimes, knowing if someone has read a sent private email can help the sender improve future email messages by working on the subject line and the actual contents of the email message. Of course, there are privacy issues to deal with as well (some recipients may not want to give up the information regarding whether or not the received email message was opened or not).
The two main methods of knowing that someone has read a given private email message is to first enable the feature ‘read receipts’ which is available in most email services today. And the second method is to use a third-party email tracking plug-in.
Requesting a read receipt is by far the easiest way to know if a sent message has been received in the inbox and has been opened by the recipient. Some email service providers use the term return receipt instead of read receipt. Fortunately, both Gmail and Outlook offer the read receipt feature. In Gmail, free users cannot request a read receipt. A subscription to Google Workspace (or G Suite) is required. To enable the feature users have to go to the admin console and then to Apps and then to Google Workspace and from there enable Email Read Receipts in User Settings. Outlook offers a much simpler experience though and the feature is available to everyone.
There are many email tracking tools to see if someone has read a private email but MailTracker is considered a very good option.
Apart from requesting read receipts, delivery receipts, and email tracking tools, there are other methods as well. One such method involves the user inserting an image into an HTML email message to show if the email message was opened. The method of inserting images into email messages is considered more reliable than the previous methods just mentioned. The image inserted in the email address can be invisible. Moreover, the recipient does not need to know if the message contains an image to indicate whether or not the message has been opened and read.