Third-party mobile email apps in email analytics
Smartphones have multiple ways of accessing email. Users might use the built-in email application on their phone, or they might install applications made by third-party software developers. For example, the native application on the iPhone is called Mail, while Gmail, Yahoo! and Mailbox also offer third-party applications for iOS.
Opens tracked on smartphones and tablets are classified as mobile opens in Email Analytics, regardless of the specific application used to open the email. In addition, opens on smartphones in the device's web browser are also classified as mobile opens.
In some cases, opens made in third-party email applications will appear in your analytics as mobile webmail opens. For example, the AOL Mail iOS app appears as AOL Mail using iPhone. Custom applications, like Mailbox that use WebKit as their rendering engine will appear as Apple iPhone. Email Analytics is unable to differentiate between mail applications that use WebKit to render mail because they provide the same type of identifying information back to us.
Third party apps tested in Litmus
iPhone
| Application | Reports |
|---|---|
| Gmail app (iOS) | via Gmail's Image cache |
| Yahoo! app (iOS) | via Yahoo/AOL's Image cache |
| Mailbox app (iOS) | Apple iPhone |
| m.gmail.com (Mobile Safari) | via Gmail's Image cache |
| Outlook app (iOS) | Apple iPhone |
iPad
| Application | Reports |
|---|---|
| Gmail app (iOS) | via Gmail's Image cache |
| Yahoo! app (iOS) | via Yahoo/AOL's Image cache |
| Mailbox app (iOS) | Apple iPad |
| AOL app (iOS) | AOL Mail using iPad |
| Molto app (iOS) | Apple iPad |
| MyMail app (iOS) | Apple iPad |
| Outlook app (iOS) | Apple iPhone |
Android
| Application | Reports |
|---|---|
| Gmail app (Android) | via Gmail's Image cache |
| Yahoo! Mail app (Android) | via Yahoo/AOL's Image cache |
| Outlook app (Android) | Google Android |