Apple kicked off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference this year by announcing new. Mail Privacy Protection for its Mail app. Mail Privacy Protection officially launched on September 20th.
What is Apple Mail Privacy Protection?
Mail Privacy Protection stops senders from using invisible pixels to collect information about the user. The new feature helps users prevent senders from knowing when they open an email, and masks their IP address so it can’t be linked to other online activity or used to determine their location.
How will it work?
When a user opens the Apple Mail app, Apple will immediately request and download the images of an email from the sender’s web host or email provider and store them in the Apple Privacy Cache. The process usually happens before an email is read and will include invisible images such as tracking pixels.
If and when the reader actually opens the email, the images will load from the Apple Privacy Cache instead of the email sender’s web host or email provider.
This affects any email opened from the Apple Mail app on any device—even if a secondary email service is used within the app e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook. However, this does not affect other independent email apps used on Apple devices e.g. Gmail or Yahoo.
What does it mean for consumers?
Apple expects its Mail Privacy Protection to be an asset to consumers and improve the user experience. The feature is turned on by default with all 2021 iPhones and iPads but people with prior models will need to turn it on manually. High opt-in rates are expected and, so far, there has been zero consumer pushback.
What does it mean for marketers?
While this may sound like a minor change, it could mislead marketers into thinking that a user opened and read an email when they actually haven’t. This is because the tracking pixel was downloaded by Apple, which will erroneously trigger an “open” in the marketer’s reports.
Many marketers already consider the open rate to be a directional metric and we agree. The open rate should be taken in context with clicks, conversions, and revenue to get a more holistic view of email performance.
Apple expects to see a slow and steady increase in open rates as people update their devices. At PepperPi, we recommend keeping a close watch on your metrics for the next several months. Over time, a new baseline of performance will become clear for which you can use to evaluate all future campaigns.
In the end
Is Apple opening your emails? The answer is no. Apple simply fetches images and preloads your emails for faster access and a better user experience.
Will these changes impact an email marketer’s ability to gauge performance? Yes. In the short term, analyzing email metrics and making informed decisions may be difficult. But, like with any change, after a period of learning, you’ll adapt to the new normal.