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When you send out an important email you want to know when it’s opened. Whether you’re applying for a job, sending out an email to a valued client, contacting your boss, or sending a email to a special someone, knowing when it’s opened can be critical information.
A new service can give you that knowledge. Sidekick gives you important information about when your email is read, where and on what device. You can peek behind the email curtain and see whether anyone is paying attention to your email.
Also know that someone may be checking on you to see when, where and how you’re opening an email and you’ll have no idea that you’re being monitored.
The Power of Sidekick
Sidekick is a powerful tool that can be used for and/or against you. By understanding Sidekick you can learn how to use it for your benefit to monitor the emails you send and learn more about the people who are sending you emails.
You should also know that Sidekick could be used against you. The next time you say, “I didn’t see that email,” when you actually have opened it, the sender may be have proof that your statement just isn’t true.
⇒ Also see, Gmail Undo Send – Saving You from Your Mistakes to learn how you can unsend emails.
Sidekick is available both as a Chrome extension and as an app for iPhone and Android.
Tracking Your Email
Sidekick is a tool from Hubspot that shows you:
- When your email is opened by the recipient
- What device the recipient used to read your email
- The geographic location where your email was opened
- How many times your email was opened
If you included a link in your email, Sidekick can show you when and whether that link was clicked on by the recipient.
Note that if you track a group email, Sidekick won’t tell you which recipient opened the email.
Get Contact Information In Your Sidebar
Sidekick can also show you information about people who send you email. Sidekick shows you information in the sidebar to your email. When you receive an email from someone, Sidekick can show you:
- Your history of emails
- Links to their social media accounts
- Information about their company (if the email was sent from a business account)
Sidekick Keeps You Honest
Know that others may be tracking you using Sidekick. Whether or not you’re using Sidekick, or one of the email services compatible with Sidekick, someone may be monitoring when you open that email.
Remember those times you opened an email, decided it needed more attention than you could spare at the time, then closed it, resolving to deal with that email later? You may not even remember that you opened the email, but the sender might know you opened it. Whether you’re forgetful or fibbing, you may get caught if you say you haven’t opened an email when you have.
[warning]Sidekick gives no indication that an email is being tracked. If you open an email that’s being monitored by Sidekick you won’t see that it’s being tracked.[/warning]
Pricing
Sidekick is free for unlimited tracking the first month you join. After that, you get 200 free tracks per month. If you find that you want unlimited tracks you can pay $10/month.
Referrals
You can earn unlimited tracking by referring others to Sidekick. Each referral earns you a free month of unlimited tracking.
Availability
Sidekick is available as a Chrome extension from the Chrome web store. You can use my Sidekick referral link to give me a free month of unlimited service or you can use this link to the Chrome web store.
You can also track when your emails are opened with the free iPhone app or Android app.
Sidekick works with email sent from these services:
- Gmail
- Apple Mail
- Outlook
Note that the email recipient doesn’t need to be using these services for Sidekick to give you notifications about when the email was opened.
Using Sidekick
From your computer:
After you download Sidekick as a Chrome extension, you’ll see the orange circle Sidekick logo in your toolbar in the upper right corner of your screen. You’ll also see that logo when you’re composing a message in your email account.
If you want an email message to be tracked, check the box next to the logo before hitting the Send button.
Look for an alert on the Sidekick icon in your toolbar to indicate that your message has been opened. Click on the icon to see the time, date and location of the opening of your email. You can also see whether the email was opened on a computer or mobile device.
If you’re away from your computer, you can monitor your emails by logging on to your account at the Sidekick website or by using the iPhone app.
⇒ Also see, 15 Fantastic Chrome Extensions to Make Your Life Easier
From the app:
Open the Sidekick app and allow it to access your contacts. Compose a message in the app and send it. The app will notify you when your email has been opened. You can read your emails in your regular email app.
The Sidekick app will give you the same date, location and device information as the Chrome extension so you can check on your emails when you’re on the go. The app will also notify you about emails you’re tracking from the Sidekick Chrome extension and the Chrome extension will notify you about emails you’re tracking from the app.
Your Thoughts
Have you ever wanted to know when your email message was opened? Have you ever fibbed about opening an email? What types of emails would you use Sidekick for? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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* Email image (edited) courtesy of Sean MacEntee via Flickr and Creative Commons.
Hi Carolyn,
This is the first time I’ve heard of Sidekick. It looks very interesting. I don’t think I’d use it much, but for my most urgent / important emails, I’d love to see when they were open and how. Some contacts are more important than others, and for instance, if they are always opening their email on their mobile devices, I’d start writing shorter sentences and shorter emails.
Thanks for letting me know about this one.
-Jens
Hi Carolyn,
This is SO interesting, and trust you to come up with such interesting stuff for all of us 🙂
I’d never heard of SideKick earlier than now and would surely be signing up through your referral link soon after here because sometimes you do wonder whether the person you emailed, even received your email or not. Sometimes it might just land up in their spam folders or they may not read it, so you can send another reminder, just in case. Yes, not all mails need to be tracked, but the important ones surely do.
As I use Chrome mostly, so your guide would work for me, or else I’d let you know if I face any problems.
Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, when I found out about Sidekick I was very excited to share it with Wonder of Tech readers. You’re right, not all emails need to be tracked, but when you have an important one you sure want to know when it’s opened. This is very exciting that we now have that capability.
Thank you for signing up through my link. I’m not sure whether I’ll ever need more than 200 tracks a month, but why not put the referral link out there? At least it shows readers how it works.
Yes, Sidekick only works with Chrome so that’s great you already use that browser. I hope you enjoy using Sidekick, Harleena!
Hi Carolyn,
I’m not sure if I like this or not. I won’t be rushing to sign up to it. I use Outlook rather than browser based email, so it probably won’t work with me. I dislike companies giving away my contacts lists which happens. I think using Outlook is more secure.
Good news, Mike. Sidekick works with Outlook. I can understand if you don’t want to use Sidekick but you should know that it works with Outlook.
Sidekick is a great tool. I started using it when it was still called Signals. The tool also comes with email marketing tips where they explain how best to use Sidekick. In one of them I learnt that you can use Sidekick to monitor when people you contacted reopen the email that you sent. This is a good time to follow up as you can be sure that they are actually thinking about your message. Just be careful not to freak people.
Now that you know I use Sidekick, did you by any chance get my recent email? 🙂
Hi Churchill, Yes, Sidekick used to be called Signals but was changed when they updated the service with more features. They plan to add scheduling of sending emails soon.
You’re right, Sidekick is designed as a business email tool but there is no reason we can’t use it for personal emails as well. Sometimes personal emails are important enough to be tracked too.
I can’t lie to you, Churchill. 😉 Yes, I got your email and will be responding (positively) very shortly!
Sidekick sounds like a nifty tool. I may give it a try.
On the other hand, I wonder what I’m giving up. Does sidekick get the content of my email that I’d be sending? What is the benefit to sidekick for providing me with this free or low cost service?
And then there is the problem of people using sidekick on me. If you are a paid subscriber, do you get alerts that an email you receive has sidekick snooping going on?
Hi Stan, Great questions. You can check out the Hubspot Privacy Policy to see what information they collect and how it is used.
That’s an interesting idea for you to be notified when you’re tracked by Sidekick if you become a paying customer. That would certainly give people an extra incentive to sign up for the premium plan!
Hey Carolyn,
This sounds like a neat service but it wouldn’t work for me. I send my emails out through my business email and that’s on my server which I also access through Outlook so I wouldn’t be able to track whether or not it was opened. I have a few gmail accounts but it’s not that important whether or not I know they opened it.
With my autoresponder service I’m able to track who opens them and who doesn’t so that’s another important service that I would want to know.
I open emails all the time with the intention to get back to them but I don’t delete them and I keep them in my inbox so I would never say I hadn’t opened it if I had. I would just let them know I meant to get back to it but I just haven’t found the time. Pretty straight forward for me. LOL!!!
Thanks for enlightening us about this service. Another one out and about now.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, Sidekick works with Outlook but it sounds as if you have all your information under control. You’re right, it’s best to say that you opened the email but didn’t get around to returning it if that’s what happened. Much better than saying you didn’t see it when you have!
Hi Carolyn,
I am very much delighted to know about this app by Hubspot. Just like me there are many people who want to know their mails are getting any response or not specially when someone applies for a job. Most of the times people say that they are not getting any responses and through this app one can track down the real report. With technology going beyond thinking this Idea is something what I would say one of the unique thing one can imagine. Will try it for sure as there are few people who don’t reply to the mail on time. Now i can track them down.
Hi Aditya, Great point. You’re right, there is a big difference between someone who isn’t responding to your email and never opened it versus someone who hasn’t responded yet but has opened it multiple times. Having this information can help you make decisions about when and whether to follow up to your initial email.
Hi Carolyn,
It’s certainly an amazing app as this is going to bring the clarity either your email been opened or not. As a marketer you can work out on various subject to increase the number of open rate. Though as a general user too you want to know whether the related recipient has read your email or not. I’m going to try this app for at least a month. 😉
Hi Pankaj, You’re exactly right. This tool was developed for marketers but it certainly can be used by everyone who wanted to track an important email and know when it’s been opened. That’s great you’re going to give Sidekick a try, Pankaj. I hope it works well for you!
sidekick shows that I have had 3 emails opened but when I click on it, it only show previous emails opened.
I love the idea of sidekick..thanks. I am a bit of a gadget freak myself and a very frequent user of freebies available on the net. Yes! I have learned to use them with caution. Use VM ware and stuff. I was a Chrome only user for years as it works so seamlessly with all my G accounts.
With my Mac though Safari is the norm, but I have Chrome installed as well and will use it for my Google accounts.
I do have another mail account at gmail of course.
Thanks again
Hi Dr. Nick, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you found me through Harleena’s article. It’s great to have another fellow gadget lover here.
I hope you enjoy using Sidekick. Having this information can be very useful for important emails!