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Read time analytics show how long recipients spend reading your internal emails sent through Outlook. This feature tracks whether emails were glanced at, skimmed, or fully read.
Read time is only available for Outlook users. This feature is not available to Gmail customers due to technical limitations with Google's email platform.
What Read Time Measures
Read time data categorizes recipient engagement into three levels:
| Engagement Level | Time Spent | What It Means |
| Glanced | 1-3 seconds | Recipient briefly opened the email |
| Skimmed | 3-9 seconds | Recipient quickly reviewed the content |
| Read | 9+ seconds | Recipient spent time engaging with the email |
Read times are aggregate totals, not unique per recipient or device.
How Read Time Tracking Works
When a recipient opens your tracked email, a tracking pixel loads and continuously refreshes at regular intervals (every 3 seconds) to measure duration. When the recipient moves to a different email, closes Outlook, navigates elsewhere, or otherwise leaves the email, the read time stops and is categorized into one of the three engagement levels.
Read time tracking only works on these email clients:
- Classic Outlook
- Outlook for Mac
- Outlook on iOS
Where Read Time Does NOT Work
Read time tracking does not work in the following situations:
- New Outlook or Outlook on the Web (OWA): These clients cache email opens, preventing accurate data capture. Read time tracking is unreliable in these environments.
- Gmail or Apple Mail: These clients do not support read time tracking.
- Outlook image proxy enabled: Microsoft's image proxy blocks the continuous pixel refresh needed for accurate measurement. Recipients with this setting will not generate reliable read time data.
Due to an ongoing Microsoft issue, read time tracking may be delayed or inaccurate even in supported clients. If you notice inconsistencies in your data, this is a known limitation.
Tracking Process:
- When a recipient opens your email in a supported client, the timer starts
- When they navigate to a different email or close the message, the timer stops
- The total time is categorized into glanced, skimmed, or read
Accessing Read Time Data
- Click Emails at the top of your dashboard
- Click Sent and select your desired email to open its campaign overview
- Hover over each segment in the Most Users section
Using Read Time to Improve Engagement
Read time analytics help you:
- Identify effective content: Compare read times across different email types to see what resonates with your audience.
- Optimize send timing: Use read time alongside the engagement distribution timeline to identify when employees have time to fully read emails, not just open them.
- Measure content value: Track whether recipients are engaging deeply with your newsletters or just scanning them.
- Refine your strategy: Test different content formats, lengths, and structures to increase read time percentages.