Does Apple Mail Privacy Protection affect all email clients?

Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) primarily affects Apple Mail clients on iOS , iPadOS , and macOS . However, the impact is felt across all email service providers because a significant portion of email users use Apple devices to access their mail, regardless of their mailbox provider (e.g., Gmail , Outlook , Yahoo Mail ). This makes open rate data less reliable across the board.

How can I still measure email engagement effectively?

To accurately measure email engagement, shift your focus to metrics that require explicit user action. These include click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates (e.g., purchases, sign-ups), and website visits driven by email. Tracking replies, forwards, and unsubscribes also provides valuable insights into how your audience interacts with your messages. Consider utilizing a comprehensive approach to measure email engagement beyond just open rates.

What are proxy opens, and do they indicate delivery?

Proxy opens, or machine opens, occur when an email client's privacy features (like Apple Mail's MPP) automatically pre-load email content. These opens do not necessarily confirm that a user has actually viewed the email. They indicate that the content (and tracking pixel) was fetched by the proxy server. While it confirms the email reached the proxy, it doesn't guarantee inbox delivery or user interaction. Read more about whether proxy opens confirm email inbox delivery .

Should I still track open rates?

You can still track open rates, but it's important to interpret them with caution. They are no longer a reliable indicator of individual user engagement, especially for subscribers using Apple Mail . Use them for general trends or A/B testing variations that might influence pre-fetching behavior, but always cross-reference with other engagement metrics like clicks and conversions. You can also work on estimating real open rates with Apple Mail Privacy Protection .

How does this impact sender reputation?

Directly, proxy opens from Apple Mail don't negatively impact sender reputation. However, relying solely on these inflated opens can lead to poor list hygiene if you're not segmenting and removing truly unengaged subscribers. This can indirectly affect your reputation over time if it results in higher spam complaints or bounce rates from inactive users. Maintaining good deliverability also involves understanding how Apple Mail Privacy impacts IP warmup strategy and open rate tracking.

How accurate is email client market share data when Apple Mail intentionally opens messages? - Technical - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

When we talk about email marketing and deliverability, email client market share data often comes up as a crucial metric. It's understandable why we rely on these numbers, as they help us understand our audience and optimize campaigns. However, recent changes, particularly with Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), have significantly muddied the waters.

The core issue is that Apple Mail now intentionally pre-opens emails, regardless of whether a user actually views them. This action automatically triggers the tracking pixel that many email service providers use to measure opens. Consequently, the reported open rates, and by extension, email client market share figures, can be highly inflated and misleading, making it harder to gauge true engagement.

Understanding Apple Mail Privacy Protection

Mail Privacy Protection, introduced by

Apple, is designed to give users more control over their privacy. It works by routing all incoming mail through a proxy server and pre-loading all content, including tracking pixels, before the user even opens the email. This means that an open is registered, whether or not the recipient actually interacts with the message.

This feature impacts not only email open tracking but also other data points that rely on image loading, such as device type and geographic location, because the IP address is masked by the proxy. Consequently, email marketers lose a significant amount of traditional insight into subscriber behavior.

This leads to a scenario where emails sent to

Gmail accounts, for example, but read using the

Apple Mail client, will show an open, even if the Gmail server itself might not have registered a direct open. This creates a disconnect between the mailbox provider's filters and the client's reported activity.

Traditional email client market share data is largely based on the loading of tracking pixels embedded in emails. When these pixels load, they send data back to the email service provider, indicating which client was used. With Apple Mail’s MPP, this process happens automatically, regardless of user interaction. This artificially inflates Apple Mail's reported share.

For instance, a report might show Apple Mail accounting for over 50% of email opens, as noted by sources like Litmus data. This figure, however, represents machine-generated opens (or proxy opens) rather than genuine user engagement with the email content. It makes it nearly impossible to identify who is truly engaged.

This issue is compounded by other email clients that also employ pre-fetching or proxy services, such as some

Yahoo Mail versions or even

Gmail's image caching. This means that what we see as an open may actually be a machine, not a human, engaging with our content. It’s hard to tell if this was a real open from any of those proxies.

Metric	Pre-MPP Interpretation	Post-MPP Interpretation
Open rate	Direct indicator of user engagement	Inflated by machine opens, unreliable for engagement
Email client market share	Accurate representation of client usage	Skewed, over-representing Apple Mail usage
Device type	Reliable for understanding audience devices	Less reliable due to proxy masking IP addresses

The primary problem is that email client market share data, typically gathered through open tracking pixels, now largely reflects how machines interact with your content, not necessarily how users actively engage with their email client. This means that if someone uses

Yahoo Mail on an

Apple iOS device with MPP turned on, you might see requests from both

Apple and

Yahoo proxies, without knowing which application the user actually opened or if they opened it at all. This makes it impossible to definitively confirm a real open or the actual client used.

The wider implications for email analytics

The implications of MPP extend beyond just market share data. Email marketers have long relied on open rates to segment audiences, measure campaign success, and even inform IP warmup strategies. With inflated open rates, these traditional approaches become less reliable.

For example, if you're using open rates to gauge subscriber engagement, you might mistakenly think a segment of your audience is highly engaged when, in reality, their emails are just being pre-fetched by

Apple's proxy. This can lead to misinformed decisions about content strategy, send frequency, and list hygiene.

Best practices for accurate email analytics

Focus on clicks: Clicks are a clearer indicator of active engagement, as they require explicit user action. They are unaffected by proxy pre-fetching.
Track conversions: Ultimately, the goal of email marketing is often conversion, whether it's a purchase, sign-up, or download. This metric is the most accurate measure of ROI.
Utilize other engagement signals: Monitor replies, forwards, and unsubscribes to get a holistic view of subscriber interaction.
Regularly clean your lists: Remove inactive subscribers based on actual engagement, not just inflated opens, to maintain a healthy sender reputation. This can also help with avoiding spam traps.

Adapting to the new reality

Given the changes with

Apple Mail and other privacy-focused initiatives, it's essential to adapt our approach to email analytics. We need to shift our focus from vanity metrics like inflated open rates to more meaningful indicators of subscriber engagement.

This means focusing on metrics that truly reflect user interest and intent. While open rates might still be tracked for directional insights or comparison against pre-MPP benchmarks, they should no longer be the sole, or even primary, measure of email performance. By embracing a broader view of engagement, we can ensure our email strategies remain effective and data-driven.

Traditional focus

Open rate: Primary metric for campaign success.
Client market share: Highly reliant on pixel-based tracking.
Segmentation: Often based on open behavior.

Modern focus

Click-through rate: Key metric for content effectiveness.
Conversion rate: Direct measure of campaign ROI.
Engagement signals: Clicks, replies, website visits.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Shift your focus to metrics like click-through rates and conversions, as these truly reflect user engagement and are unaffected by pre-fetching.

Regularly segment your audience based on genuine interactions, not just inflated open rates, to refine your targeting and messaging strategies.

Test your emails across various clients and devices to ensure consistent rendering and functionality, regardless of privacy protections.

Leverage server-side data where possible to gain deeper insights into deliverability and engagement beyond client-side tracking.

Common pitfalls

Over-relying on reported open rates for campaign performance, leading to an inaccurate understanding of subscriber engagement.

Misinterpreting email client market share data due to pre-fetching, which can skew audience segmentation and targeting efforts.

Failing to adapt list hygiene practices to account for inflated opens, potentially leading to lower overall deliverability rates.

Not understanding that machine opens don't confirm actual user interaction or deliverability to the inbox.

Expert tips

Clicks are the new opens, focus on them.

Pre-fetching by proxies doesn't mean actual opens.

Email client market share is harder to measure.

Sender reputation isn't directly impacted by proxy opens, but engagement matters.

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says to take email client market share numbers with a grain of salt because measuring them using image downloads is pretty inaccurate.

2023-06-07 - Email Geeks

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says that now Apple is intentionally opening messages, opens are counted when content is requested from the host.

2023-06-07 - Email Geeks

Navigating the new email analytics landscape

The landscape of email analytics has undeniably changed. While traditional email client market share data and open rates provided a snapshot of engagement,

Apple Mail's Mail Privacy Protection has introduced significant inaccuracies. It's crucial for marketers to understand these changes and pivot their strategies towards more reliable engagement metrics.