What Is The Process to Set up Read Receipts in Gmail?

Emails have turn into a very important form of communication these days as all official places require the use of an email account for various tasks and messages. Gmail is unarguably the most famous email service that is use by people to send messages and other important information with the help of an email. 

While using Gmail, it is common to feel anxious when you are waiting for the reply to a very important email and you open your inbox, again and again, to see whether there is a new email or not. If the reply is not coming then, people also begin to speculate that maybe the email has not reaching the receiver or whether the email has been read by the person on the other end or not and this creates a situation of limbo. 

Well, fortunately, Gmail has an amazing feature that makes this limbo impossible as the read receipts feature of email service allows people to know when the receiver has read your email. Gmail read receipt sends a notification to the sender when the recipient has read the email sent to them and in this article, we will be mentioning the process with which you can easily enable this amazing feature in your Gmail account. 

What are the steps to enable Read Receipts in your Gmail account?

Before we tell you how to add read receipts in gmail, it is important to know that currently, Gmail has not made this feature available in personal email accounts. If you have a personal email account then, this feature will not be accessible to you and you can only set this feature up in a professional email account i.e. a G-suite account. 

Now that you have this information let’s move forward and get to know the steps with which you can easily enable read receipts in your G-suite account.

1. You need to be the Administrator of the account to enable this feature in the account in case multiple people have access to it. 
2. Now, you need to compose a new email with your account. 
3. After entering the ‘To’ and ‘Subject’ fields in the new email that you are composing, you are require to click on the three dots present on the right side of the screen. 
4. You will see the option that says ‘request read receipts’. Click on the same option and confirm it by sending the email and after this, you will be notified whenever the recipient has read the email sent by you. 

We hope that you have comprehend the details shared here with which you can use this outstanding feature in your account. 

Limitations to Using Read Receipts in Gmail 

There are certain limitations and restrictions that you will encounter while accessing gmail read receipts settings and here, we are also going to tell you about the same. 

1. The most basic thing that you need to know is that the feature is not available for people with a personal gmail account. You can only make use of this feature with a G-suite account provided to you or created by you. 
2. Gmail read receipts are completely optional which means it is your choice whether you want to use this feature or not while sending an email account. 
3. If you are using big providers like Outlook or Thunderbird then, you will be able to see the feature however, lesser providers do not have this service. 
4. The most important thing that you need to know about read receipts is that this feature needs to be enable manually as it is not automatic. 

However, there are some alternative methods you can use to achieve a similar result:

Request a Read Receipt in Gmail: While composing an email, you can click on the three dots in the lower-right corner of the compose window and select “Request read receipt.” However, keep in mind that not all email clients and services support read receipts, so this method may not always be reliable.

Use Third-Party Extensions: There are third-party browser extensions and plugins that claim to provide read receipts for Gmail. These tools can be add to your browser and often integrate with Gmail to offer additional features, including read receipts. Be cautious when using such extensions and ensure they are from reputable sources.

Track Email Opens with External Services: Some third-party email tracking services allow you to track when recipients open your emails. These services usually provide additional analytics, such as the time the email was open and the location of the recipient. Again, be cautious about privacy and compliance with regulations when using such services.

Use a Business Email Service: Some business-oriented email services offer read receipt functionalities as part of their premium features. If you’re using Gmail for business, you may want to explore the options provided by G Suite (now called Google Workspace).

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