What This Feature Does and How It Works
Read Time Insights categorize your email opens into three groups—Read, Skimmed, and Glanced—based on exactly how long a recipient keeps your message open on their screen.
How do we track this? When you enable this add-on, SendX automatically embeds a hidden 1x1px GIF (a transparent image pixel) at the bottom of your email campaigns. As the recipient opens the email and their email client loads this invisible image, our system measures the exact amount of time the message remains open and actively viewed.
Why Use Read Time Insights?
Standard open rates only tell you if someone clicked your subject line; they don't tell you if your actual content was consumed.
Read Time metrics help you identify if your audience is truly engaging with your message or if they are losing interest after a few seconds. This data allows you to confidently optimize your subject lines, adjust your email length, and improve your overall design layout.
Step 1: Enable the Add-on
Before you can track engagement depth, you must activate the feature in your settings.
Log in to your SendX dashboard.
Navigate to Settings on the left-hand sidebar.
Click on the Add-ons tab.
Locate Read Time Insights and toggle the switch to ON.
Important Note: This feature is not retroactive. Data will only be collected for new campaigns sent after this toggle has been turned on.
Step 2: View Your Report
Once you have sent a campaign with the add-on enabled, you can check your engagement data.
Go to the Campaigns section from your main navigation.
Select a sent campaign.
Click the View Report button.
Scroll down to the Engagement Analytics section to see a visual pie chart breakdown of your audience's read time.
Understanding the Metrics
SendX categorizes engagement based on the duration the email was active in the recipient's email client:
Read (8+ Seconds): The percentage of openers who stayed in the email for 8 seconds or more. These users likely consumed most or all of your content.
Skimmed (2–8 Seconds): The percentage of openers who viewed the email briefly. They likely scanned the headlines or images but didn't read the full body text.
Glanced (Less than 2 Seconds): The percentage of openers who closed the email almost immediately. This often happens if the content isn't what the subject line promised, or if they are just rapidly "cleaning out" their inbox.
Important Notes & Limitations
Calculation Method: These percentages are calculated based on your Total Opens, not your total overall subscriber list.
Image Blocking: Because this feature relies on the hidden 1x1px GIF, it will not track read times for subscribers who have automatic image downloading turned off in their email client settings.
Email Client Restrictions: Some email providers (most notably Gmail and Apple Mail) aggressively cache images or block tracking pixels for privacy reasons. Because of this, your Engagement Analytics chart represents a highly accurate sample of the providers that do allow tracking, rather than a 100% exact count of every single opener.
Plan Availability: This feature is available as a free add-on for users on all SendX plans.
Common Questions (FAQ)
Why does my report show 0% engagement for a campaign I just sent?
Check if the "Read Time Insights" add-on was toggled ON before the campaign was actually sent. If it was turned on after you hit send, the tracking GIF was not embedded, and data will not be available for that specific campaign.
Why is my "Read" count lower than my "Total Opens"?
Not all email clients support duration tracking due to image caching. Additionally, the "Read" metric only accounts for users who stayed for 8+ seconds. Users who closed the email faster are categorized under "Skimmed" or "Glanced."
Does this feature cost extra?
No. While it is located in the premium "Add-ons" section of your settings, it is currently available to users on all SendX plans at no additional cost.