Apple Mail App Privacy Protection: What Email Senders got to Know?

More information on Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection has become available since the initial publication of this text on June 19, 2021. Read the new information on how the Mail Privacy Protection will affect email senders. we'll still update this text as we learn more. 

At Apple’s WWDC conference on June 8TH, 2021, Apple announced Mail Privacy Protection (MPP). The Mail Privacy Protection update is a component of Apple’s larger initiative to assist users to take hold of their data; however, it's the variety of implications for email senders. to raised understand how Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection will affect email senders. we'll still update this text. 

What is Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection update?

Mail Privacy Protection may be a new option located within the Apple device settings of iOS 15. When users open the Apple Mail app for the primary time after downloading iOS 15, they're going to be prompted to settle on what data is shared when using the Apple Mail app. Users are going to be ready to decide whether to cover their IP address and site information.

How does Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection is affected by email senders?

email senders from fully understanding how MPP-enabled is recipients are engaging with their businesses’ emails. While senders can still check out click tracking, it'll be tougher to acknowledge unengaged contacts or evaluate the success of an email campaign with closing tracking data.

When will Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection be live?

iOS 15 will likely launch this October with the adoption of iOS and MPP increasing over time. 

How do we expect MPP to impact engagement data?

MPP impacts engagement data from recipients who have to arrange their email account within the Apple Mail app on any of their devices and enabled MPP from iOS 15. 

It is difficult to predict MPP’s impact on overall signing up numbers. it's likely that any message sent to a mailbox that's configured with Apple Mail are going to be “opened” by Mail Privacy. we suggest that even gmail.com or yahoo.com mailboxes could generate false opens if they're connected to the Apple Mail app. albeit the recipient usually uses the Gmail app or a Chrome browser to look at their emails, simply having the mailbox configured with the Mail app could end in non-human opens.

How will MPP anonymize opens?

We are actively researching and testing this new feature and can still share our findings as iOS 15 launches. Initial finding mixed handling of emails for MPP-enabled recipients. for a few messages, an anonymous proxy server fetches all of the pictures. For other messages, only a couple of images are fetched, and a few messages behave as they always have. 

Are there any thanks to determining if a recipient has this feature enabled?

No, not with an excellent deal of accuracy. Initial testing is showing us that these open come throw very generic user agents and generic IP addresses. you'll be ready to resemble who is using Apple Mail’s privacy feature but it'll be just that, an estimation

 Twilio SendGrid volume is opened with the Apple Mail app?

Twilio SendGrid data shows 7.7% of all opens occur within the Apple Mail application, while Litmus shows a 37% email client market share for Apple iPhones and a tenth market share for Apple Mail. This percentage varied even more in our conversations with other email service providers—some belief their Apple Mail volume to be as high as 35%. 

User-agent tracking is extremely challenging to trace which is probably going why we are seeing such a good range of knowledge. Plus, every business will have a rather different percentage of recipients using Apple Mail. it'll be important to stay an eye fixed on open rates and see how they modify within the coming months to urge a far better idea of what percentage of Apple Mail users you've got on your contact list. 

How can we manage engagement-based sunsetting for Apple Mail users? 

We believe the simplest solution is going to be to use click track rather than open tracking. Click events are less common than open events so it stands to reason that using click tracking alone will end in the removal of more subscribers from your list thanks to non-engagement than when using open tracking. 

For more information on sunsetting, visit the subsequent blog posts: Building Your Business Case for an Email Sunset Policy and the way to make and Execute an Email Sunsetting Strategy.

What happens if other mailbox providers or operating systems adopt an identical approach?

 Twilio SendGrid will need to adjust its approach for tracking engagement. Using opens to trace engagement together with your email channel has been the industry standard for many years. 

If senders lose a big portion of engagement data, we'll need to come up with new ideas and new ways of determining which recipients actually want our digital communications. for instance, we could:

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Ignore open data and reply entirely on click thing 

Move far away from direct engagement data entirely

Send regular reconfirmation/re-engagement campaigns

Use alternative channels (SMS, push notifications, video, voice, in-app, etc.) to verify the will to still receive email communications

An evolving industry

As the email industry evolves, Twilio SendGrid will provide best practices and suggestions to adapt to any changes in privacy or regulation. we'll update this list of FAQs as more answers we available, and expect more articles on how businesses can steel themselves against this alteration. 

In the meantime, if you'd like help addressing the Mail Privacy Protection, delivery issues, or general email performance for your brand, reach bent our team of email experts.