When we first talked about MailTrack in June 2014, its function caught our attention immediately: mimicking the “double-check” system we know from WhatsApp and applying it to Gmail with the goal of knowing if the other person has read the email we sent. Until recently, MailTrack was an exclusive extension for Chrome and its variants, but everything seems ready for its debut on Firefox.
Everyone has a “love-hate” relationship with email, and unless a more productive and less invasive solution appears, it's hard to think of replacing email in the short or medium term. I have about two thousand emails in my inbox, some dating back many years, but they will have to keep waiting, because honestly I don't have the time to manage such a volume. Unlike instant messengers, email provides no confirmation of reading unless someone explicitly requests it. The alternative is a platform called MailTrack.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/fOPtbSar9WIMailTrack works with Gmail, and its only function is to add a “double-check” mechanism, almost identical to the one in WhatsApp, that helps us confirm if the other person opened the email we sent. Basically, MailTrack relies on a small image embedded in the original message. When the recipient opens the email, that image loads, and MailTrack detects the reading. Now, all the user has to do to protect their privacy is block automatic image loading, which at the same time serves as a security measure (there is never a shortage of malware with a malicious payload behind an image), but if users agree with how MailTrack works, it can be very useful.
The latest news about MailTrack is that it's approaching Firefox. For some strange reason, neither the official page nor the Mozilla add-ons section has the extension yet, though I imagine it will be a matter of time before it appears. With this news, MailTrack leaves behind its Chrome and other Chromium exclusivity, but for now its priority will be desktop systems. Those who want to see something like this on mobile will have to wait a bit longer.
