Published Oct 26, 2026, 1:00 PM EDT

Brandon has been involved in tech journalism since the year 2000 and was part of the OG team of XDA and Pocketnow. He's currently a staff writer for MakeUseOf, covering mobile and consumer tech. Brandon likes to help people take full advantage of their technology.

He lives outside of Philadelphia, PA, with his wife and three kids. When he's not writing, Brandon plays drums and enjoys listening to music.

He's a graduate of the Villanova School of Business where he got a bachelors degree in finance.

What good is an email if the other person doesn't even open it? That is what read receipts are for, because getting confirmation that the receiver has received — and opened — your message is incredibly valuable sometimes.

But due to the fact that some email clients now block the loading of remote images and code (which is the main method by which email trackers work), getting read receipts is tricky and, in some cases, impossible.…