So this guide will walk through the process for not just enabling read receipts for those who do have access. But also some third-party solutions for adding the functionality to your Gmail.
The easiest, most reliable way to enable these is still with a subscription
Now, the primary method for enabling read receipts in Gmail involves a GoogleWorkspace subscription. And, in fact, that’s the only method to attain it officially. Moreover, users who receive emails from you will need to accept sending read receipts. They won’t show up if your recipients choose not to. So there’s still no guarantee they’ll work for every email. With that said, the subscription in question is also primarily intended for enterprise users. So, while steps for getting this enabled, if you do have a Google Workspace subscription are fairly straightforward, this option isn’t available to everybody.
Enable read receipts in Gmail with third-party extensions
Now, there are a number of ways to add read receipts in Gmail with third-party extensions, for those who don’t want to pay for a full Google Workspace subscription. At any rate, those subscriptions are intended for enterprise-level purposes, as noted earlier. So they aren’t really for everybody. And, of course, there are risks involved. Google has had some serious extensions breaches in the past. And despite its best efforts, those are still possible. As often as not, those involve legitimate extensions. So, prior to using these methods to gain read receipts in Gmail, it’s always a good idea to double-check that there haven’t been any recent breaches of them. Of equal importance, not every extension that ultimately has issues is for Chrome or Chrome exclusive. Setting that aside, in terms of what is available, there are plenty of options out there for adding this feature. For example, some top solutions include MailTag, Free Email Tracker, BananaTag, and Gmelius. Our guide will cover two of the most popular third-party solutions.
Read receipts with Boomerang
Boomerang is one of the free — with paid features — options that’s incredibly popular for this particular task.
…or with Mailtrack
Another option is Mailtrack. And, like Boomerang, it’s easy enough to get started with, albeit, only with Google Chrome.