What is it?
Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) is a new feature that was released on September 20, 2021 on all Apple devices with the iOS 15 update. The feature is designed to mask email open data for users of the Apple Mail application.
What does it do?
When users opt into this setting, the Apple Mail application automatically pre-loads images for incoming emails in the background at random times. This causes an open event to trigger regardless of whether the user actually opens the email.
Limitations
The feature only applies to iOS 15 users that have their email tied to the Apple Mail app and have opted into the setting. We are still able to tie these opens back to the recipient, and, if users interact with their email via browser, normal open events will still be received. The feature also does not mask click data.
Impact
The primary impact of this feature is that it artificially will drive up Opens and Open Rates for marketer communications. The open rate for users with this enabled will always be 100% we will always get an open event triggered by the app. We also receive additional open events when the user interacts with the email, but are unable to determine which opens were automatic and which were user generated.
What is Clutch doing to address it?
Open events that are triggered for users with Apple MPP enabled are being flagged in our data. We’re using that flag to break out email open-related metrics to provide marketers with additional insights.
You will now see the following open metrics in our email reporting:
- Opens (All Users)
- Traditional Opens (Non-MPP)
- Machine Opens (MPP-Enabled)
- Unique Opens (All Users)
- Traditional Unique Opens (Non-MPP)
- Open Rate (All Users)
- Traditional Open Rate (Non-MPP)
Note: Machine Open Rate will not be reported because it is always 100%.