Does Hotmail Have A Read Receipt Option?
Yes, Hotmail has a read receipt option where you get a notification when your recipient has opened your email. However, this option is not available through the web version, so you must access Hotmail through a desktop email client like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird to access this functionality.
Steps On How To Get A Hotmail Read Receipt
Below are the steps to get a Hotmail return receipt. Please note that these steps are based on Outlook Express.
Step 1: Open Hotmail on Outlook Express
Open your Outlook Express and check if Hotmail is configured in it. Otherwise,
- Go to Tools > Accounts > Add
- Next, enter your Hotmail account
- Then, select “POP3” and type “mail.hotmail.com” in the incoming and outgoing fields
- Enter your account name and password
- Click Finish
After this, you should be able to send and receive Hotmail messages through your Outlook Express.
Step 2: Compose a Message
Now, to check if you will get a Hotmail return receipt, compose an email. Enter the email address, and add contents in the subject and the body fields respectively.
Step 3: Request Read Receipt
After you compose the message, click the Tools menu. From the dropdown menu, select “Request Read Receipt“. Make sure to do this before you send the message.
Step 4: Wait for the Receipt
Lastly, send the email and look out for the Hotmail return receipt when your recipient opens the email.
This is how you can get a Hotmail read receipt.
(Note: If you don’t get a read receipt, it could mean Hotmail is not syncing. Read our linked guide on this for help.)
Can You Get A Hotmail Read Receipt Without The Recipient Knowing?
No, it’s not possible to get a Hotmail read receipt without the recipient knowing about it. When you ask for a Hotmail return receipt, a notification is sent to the receiver. Only after the recipient accepts the notification and agrees to send the read receipt, you’ll get one.
That said, there are some third-party tools that track email open rates in real-time and can notify you. In such cases, the recipient will not know. But this doesn’t happen through Hotmail itself.
FYI: If the recipient has blocked your emails then you will not get a read receipt period. Check out other ways to tell if you’ve been blocked in our linked guide.
Is The Process The Same When Using An iPhone?
No, the process is slightly different on an iPhone. To turn on the Hotmail return receipt on your iPhone,
- Go to Settings > Accounts & Passwords.
- Navigate to “Mail” and select your Hotmail account.
- Scroll down and move the “Read Receipts” slider
With this, you’ll get read receipt notices. Please note that it is the same process for all email accounts and is not specific to just your Hotmail account.
How Do You Disable Read Receipts In Hotmail?
You must use an email client to disable read receipts in Hotmail, as this functionality is not available on the web version. The below steps are for the Microsoft Outlook email client.
- Open Outlook and navigate to File > Options > Mail.
- Move down to the “Tracking” section. Here, you can see two options for read receipts.
- As the name suggests, the first option is about you getting a Hotmail return receipt while the second one is about your sender getting the receipt. You can choose to enable or disable either of the two choices.
When you’re done, click OK and the changes will take effect right away.
