Tracking pixels stripped
Gone before you read a word.
Any image declaring itself 1×1 or 0×0 is removed before a message reaches your screen, along with hidden preheader text. There is nothing to switch on.
In short
What is an email tracking pixel?
A tracking pixel is an invisible image, one pixel square, at an address unique to your copy of a message. Loading it tells the sender’s server when you opened it.
How it works
Removed on the way to your screen
It runs each time you open a message in the app. The stored copy stays as it arrived, and the API and MCP return that.
Judged by size, whoever sent it
An image declaring 1×1 or 0×0 goes, OpenEmail’s own open pixel included, and so does a preheader styled out of sight. Real pictures stay.
Pixels sized with CSS need pictures off
The pass reads width and height attributes, so a pixel shrunk by a style gets through. Pictures off holds every remote fetch.
What the pass looks for
Images by their width and height attributes, preheaders by their class plus a hiding style.
What you get
In the product today
Nothing to switch on
On for every account and every sender.
Our own pixel too
The 1×1 image OpenEmail adds to tracked mail goes like any other.
Real pictures stay
Logos and photos with real sizes are left alone.
Remote fonts dropped
Imported style sheets and remote web fonts go in the same pass.
Good practice
Getting the most out of it
- 01
Turn automatic pictures off
Switch off Load pictures in mail automatically to catch what the size rule misses.
- 02
Trust senders you need
Trust Sender loads one address’s pictures while everyone else’s stay held.
- 03
Strip before you render
A client rendering messages read over the API or MCP should remove tracking images first.
Where it stands
Good to know
- Printing
- Printing skips the pass. With pictures on, the default, a printed message fetches its pixel.
- OpenEmail senders
- With pictures showing, the app records the open for an OpenEmail sender who tracks opens.
Questions
Asked often
Keep going
Works well with
Start
Your domain,
your mail.
Point a domain at OpenEmail and read it in a mailbox built around it. The free plan covers one domain.
