As y'all know, when you send an EMAIL from your BB, you get a message from your BB address to your email address with "delivered" in the subject line that says, "Your message was delivered to the recipient."

What does this message mean exactly?

1) The message arrived at the recipient's ISP (webmail)?

2) The message arrived in their inbox on their computer (Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.)?

3) They OPENED the message a) in their webmail and/or b) in their computer's email client?

Bonus Question for extra points) What if the person ONLY does webmail? What if they leave their computer on all the time and their webmail open all the time? This would seem to suggest that the "delivered" notification is triggered when the email arrives in their webmail. But then how do you know if they've opened it?

Choose all that apply.

I'm NOT asking how to disable these messages. I want to get them. I just want to know PRECISELY what they mean.

Thanks.

I believe (might need someone to back it up), But I believe this means that the message was successful in being delivered to the recipients mailbox (probably the mail server of their ISP/organization). It does not mean that they have read it or downloaded it to their personal mailbox on their computer.

Looks like you posted this on another site as it is coming up in Google. Did you check the responses there?

AFAIK, delivered means just that - it was delivered to the addressee's inbox (your Option 1). If you had it turned on, you would get a read receipt when the person opened the message on his/her email client.

Yes, I posted this on the crackberry site, but have gotten no useful responses. It's hard to search for the answer to this.

Cooper, yours is the most potentially informative response I've gotten so far. Thanks. When you say it doesn't necessarily mean they've read it, do you mean it doesn't necessarily mean they've OPENED it?

Anyone know if he's right?

"delivered" means the message is delivered to the recipient's mailbox... if you want to know if they've read/opened it, you must attach a read receipt to your message, but that only works if the recipient sends back the read receipt response coz if they click "no" then you won't know if they've read/opened it

Prase said: "'delivered' means the message is delivered to the recipient's mailbox... "

Does this mean the mailbox at their webmail? Or the inbox in their email client on their computer? I'm guessing the former only.

So if the mail is delivered to their webmail, but their computer at home is turned off... the sender wouldn't know one way or the other, correct?


I understand that you need a read receipt (which option they may have turned off permanently, as I have) to determine if the email has been OPENED (presumably in webmail OR on the computer).

I just like to be clear about this stuff. Thanks.

The e-mail client on the computer (e.g. Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc.) is basically a container that pulls and stores e-mail messages from the actual mailbox on the e-mail server at the user's request. That being said, when e-mail is delivered to mailbox means it is delivered to recipient's assigned mailbox on the server.

As far as the sender is concerned, the e-mail has reached the intended recipient; but the recipient won't know of the new e-mail until they log into the webmail to check it or do an e-mail pull using the e-mail client. (Which is why BB is great, you don't have to check your webmail or pull e-mails bcoz BB automatically push/forward e-mails to your device as soon as your mailbox received them.)

Prase, your answer is SOOO clear, and I cannot thank you enough.

You are Da Bomb.


Okay, another question: how does a "read receipt" work in the context you just presented?

How does it work if the person 1) only does webmail and does not use an email client, and 2) if they do use an email client?

Thiis thread is exactly what I am looking for to assist one of my users. However, she DOES want to turn off the delivery notifications. How can I do this?
Thanks

Wirelessly posted

I'm not entirely sure if all webmails have read receipt feature. In the case where it has the feature, when the recipient opens the message, the browser will take them to a page (in some cases could be a popup) that says sender requested a read receipt. If recipient click 'yes' then sender will get an e-mail saying recipient has read the message. But if recipient chooses to ignore or click 'no' then sender won't receive a response.

With e-mail client, when message is opened there'll be a popup asking for the response I've described above.

That's the process in a nutshell. Details may differ.

Wirelessly posted

You mean the BB e-mail notification? Not sure that you can coz that's BB's way of telling you that its job, otherwise how will you know your message gets to where it needs to go?

I mean, it doesn't really bother me coz I rarely use webmails anymore except when I have to send attachments.

Yes. she doesn't want to get a notification that every email she sends out from her BB is delivered. I just work here.

In the messages application: Menu -> Email Settings, chose the account you want to change, set Confirm Delivery and/or Confirm Read as desired.

If these options aren't there (perhaps for BES) then this functionality is controlled by the underlying groupware (Exchange, Notes, Domino).

Just to be clear: "confirm read" really means "confirm opened," right?


As long as we're on the subject, sometimes I get this message:

But I only get these from John Doe-- not from anyone else.

Yes, "read" = "open"

As far as that notification you get from John Doe, my guess is that he deleted the message without opening it first.

Yeah, clearly he did. I'm just wondering why I only get this message from him. I'm SURE other people delete my lovely epistles before reading them... surely...

Perhaps they don't let their mail tool send out the read receipt, in all the apps I've seen it is the users' choice.

+1 on this problem