Fastmail Feature request: Read Receipts
 

Fastmail is rapidly developing into a stellar email client. Snoozing emails and calendars side by side- it is finally evolving into a very reliable Exchange replacement.

How important is read receipts to you? Do you use it?

Nope. Wouldn't use them. Even if FM supported them would the destination POP/IMAP server support them? Does the destination server handle the receipt (i.e., made it to the destination server) or pass it on to the client (app or webmail)? Does the client support them? Does the client support just that the client received the email or the recipient actually opened the email to read it? Too many variables IMO.

Totally agree with that and additionally, I don’t want others to see when/if I’ve read their mails, either.

Reed receipts in the wrong hands are a major invasion of privacy imho.

I'm so not interested in whether or not a server supports them.

In my work environment, I ignore completely regardless of whether or not the sender is senior or think they're important.

It's one thing to read an e-mail, it's another thing to action the e-mail, and these can be an intrusion to your workflow.

I recall this sign, on the wall of an office many moons ago:

I must get one of those! :p

I have never (as far as I know) sent an email that asked for a read receipt.

I receive a handful of emails that do ask - one regular one comes from the billing department of another hosting/email provider... The webmail system I use where those show up(*) asks if I wish to send a receipt, and since it's a legitimate billing thing, I do send them. Apart from that I only send them if I think the requester actually needs to know. If eg I'm about to write a reply to them, there'd be no point. Edit: I don't mean to imply that I'd send receipts if I wasn't about to write a reply; I hardly ever send receipts, apart from the billing ones mentioned above.

* - it's on their system, so if they really wanted to know, they could surely tell from their own system's logs, that I had read it!

I find them offensive and I actively ignore them.
I refuse to acknowledge any read-receipt.

Is the poll regarding requesting outbound read-receipts from the recipient, or having FM acknowledge incoming read-receipt requests from a sender?


I'm assuming the poll is about the former, but perhaps it's generally referring to both.


In case anyone doesn't know, a desktop/IMAP/SMTP email client can potentially handle both, independent of how the FM UI handles things.


BTW, in case anyone also doesn't know, the FM UI *does* have a flag to request an outbound read-receipt. It's in the upper-right corner drop-down. I use it often.



For over 2 decades now, most receiving email servers strip or ignore the incoming read-request flag, because of privacy/security reasons.


I for one always request the outbound read-receipt. I have some contacts that actually do acknowledge it and send the reply. This can help with things.