How to Track GMail Emails on Android.
How many times have you wondered if the email you sent was received, opened, or read by another party? The fact of the matter is, almost all major email service providers don’t offer features like email tracking so you know if the recipient has opened your email or not. To deal with this, there are many services that can track your email to provide detailed information, such as when the email was opened, which links the recipient clicked on, etc. Thanks to the extension support in most modern browsers, regular desktop users have have been using these services for many years. Android users are out of luck. However, there are still ways to track email on Android. Here’s how to do it.
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How does email tracking work
While it sounds like magic, the way to track email is pretty straightforward and straightforward. When you choose to track your email, the email tracking service adds a 1 X 1 transparent image to the email you send. This transparent image is commonly known as the tracking pixel. When the recipient opens the email, the tracking pixel is automatically loaded. Since the tracking pixel is hosted on servers controlled by the email tracking service, it instantly knows that an email has been opened as soon as it receives a request to download a transparent image. On the other hand, if the recipient has configured their email client to not upload images to avoid being tracked, no email tracking service will be able to track the email.
In addition to using tracking pixels, most email tracking services can also track link clicks by masking the actual URL with the tracking URL. When the user clicks on the URL, the request is first sent to the email tracking service and then it is automatically redirected to its actual destination. Very similar to URL shortening services.
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Boomerang Mail features
Since the regular email app or service on your Android device does not support tracking, we are going to track emails on Android using the free Boomerang Mail app. The best thing about Boomerang Mail is that it’s a complete email app where you can read, send, and manage all of your emails. Other Boomerang Mail features include, but are not limited to, read receipts, click tracking, location tracking, push notifications, account-specific themes, snooze and schedule messages, email signature, multi-account support, multi-gesture support, robust search to search for emails, etc.
As good as that is, Boomerang currently only supports Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, and Google Apps accounts. If you use any other email service, this application is not for you. On the other hand, Boomerang is working on supporting other major email services such as Yahoo, Rackspace, etc.
Track emails on Android
To track email, we first need to install and activate the Boomerang Mail app on your Android device. So, go to the play store, search for Boomerang Mail and hit the Install button to install the app on your Android device.
After installing Boomerang Mail, launch the app from the main menu by clicking on the Boomerang Mail app icon.
Once you launch the app, it will display all the email accounts associated with your Android device. If you see your email address in the list, click on it. Otherwise, click on your email provider in the Add New Account section and follow the instructions in the wizard. Since my email address is already listed, I select it from the list.
The above action will take you to the authentication screen, check the permissions and click the “Allow” button to continue.
Once you click Allow, you give Boomerang access to manage your email account. Once connected, Boomerang will show you a quick overview. Just swipe left to end your review and hit the Let’s Go button to start using the app.
Here on this screen, choose a theme for your email account. In my case, I choose the Drak theme. Click on the “Save” button to continue.
As a full-fledged email client, you can see all your emails on your home screen.
Before you can start tracking, it’s best if you turn on notifications. This allows Boomerang to show alerts when the recipient opens your email. To enable notifications, click on the menu icon (three horizontal lines) that appears in the upper left corner of the screen. Here, scroll down and select the “Settings” option.
On the settings screen, scroll down to your email account and tap on the “Account Settings” option.
Here, on the Account Settings screen, tap on the “Notification Settings” option.
Now toggle the button next to New Post Notifications and click the Save button to save your settings.
When you turn on notifications, Boomerang also includes a Background Loading option. This feature allows Boomerang to check for new emails in the background.
Once you’re done setting up notifications, you’re ready to start tracking email on Android. To get started, click on the “Write” icon that appears in the upper right corner.
Here, enter the recipient’s email address in the To field, enter a subject in the Subject field, and enter your message in the Body field. By default, Boomerang does not add a tracking pixel to track emails you send. You need to manually add the tracking pixel. To do this, click on the “Attachment” icon that appears in the lower right corner.
The above action will expand the menu with new options. Select the option “Read receipt” from the list.
With the above action, you have successfully added the tracking pixel to your email. Once you have done this, click on the “Send” option to send an email. If you want to schedule the email to be sent at a later date or time, select the Send Later option and set the time.
As soon as the recipient opens your email, Boomerang tracks it and sends an email notification. This is what an email notification looks like. Please be aware that Boomerang cannot track email if the recipient is actively blocking third-party content, such as the tracking pixel, from being loaded into their emails.
The email notification is pretty simple. However, if you want more information about how many times an email has been opened or which links have been clicked, you need to access Boomerang from your desktop. Just install the Firefox or Chrome extension and sign in to your email account. Here, click the Boomerang icon in the upper right corner of the window, and then click the Manage Scheduled Messages link.
The above action will take you to the Boomerang page. Here, go to the “Tracked Posts” tab to view the messages you tracked. By clicking on “message”, you will see how many times the email has been opened and whether any links have been clicked. You can also see the time and date when Boomerang first and last tracked the message.
That’s all there is to it, and tracking email in Android is easy. Comment below, share your thoughts and experiences on using the above method to track email on Android, or share your favorite apps that can do the same.
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