Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) FAQs

In 2021, Apple released a new privacy feature in iOS 15 and Mac OS Monterey. Contacts using Apple Mail have the option to enable Mail Privacy Protection (Apple MPP), which will limit the ability to accurately determine:

• Whether or when an email has been opened
• Where a contact is located when they open it
• The type of device and email client a contact is using when they open it

Apple MPP affects how marketers measure the success of their emails and how they engage their subscribed contacts. Rest assured that even with Apple MPP:

• Your emails will continue to be delivered to your contacts who use Apple Mail
• Engagement within an email (click activity and click rate) will still be reported for your contacts who use Apple Mail

In this article, we’ll answer some common questions about how Apple MPP impacts you.

How does open tracking work, and how does Apple MPP change it?

When you enable open tracking, Mailchimp places a tiny, transparent image (a single pixel that isn't visible in the email) into each email. The pixel loads each time the email is opened, which we count and report. Opens help us estimate a contact's location and time zone, as well as determine device type and email client.

If a contact enables Apple MPP, Apple Mail will preload pixels, even if your contact hasn’t opened the email, resulting in unreliable open metrics. We won't be able to accurately count opens, estimate location, or determine device type or email client for these contacts. With Apple MPP enabled, emails present in Apple Mail are reported as "opened," regardless of the contact's activity, resulting in inflated and inaccurate open rates.

Does Apple MPP affect email opened in any other apps?

No. Apple’s MPP feature only applies to Apple Mail users.

How does Apple MPP impact my Mailchimp account?

Here’s how your Mailchimp account is impacted.

• Email reports might show distorted numbers for opens, a lower “Clicks per unique open” rate, and inaccurate geolocation and email client reporting for any contacts who use Apple Mail and enable Apple MPP.

• Because the IP addresses are hidden for contacts who opt into Apple MPP, you may notice fewer contacts in segments targeted to a location.

• Resend to non-openers won't be delivered to contacts that opt-in to Apple MPP.

• The results of A/B tests that are based on open rates may not be accurate.

• Any Customer Journeys or Classic Automations and automations triggered based on opens will automatically be sent to a larger audience. If the trigger is based on a “not-open,” it will be sent to a smaller audience. Consider expanding your trigger criteria to include other engagement criteria, such as clicks or purchases. We suggest that you pause your active automations triggered by opens to preserve historic metrics.

• Contact ratings of Apple Mail users are higher than expected based on inflated open rates.

Although reported opens by Apple Mail users inflate your overall open rates, you’ll still be able to see other data from your emails. Clicks and purchases are stronger signs of engagement than opens, and aren't impacted by Apple MPP.

How does Apple MPP impact my Mailchimp reports?

With Apple MPP, opens and open-related metrics are inflated on your reports. For the marketing dashboard and custom reports, you can check a box to exclude these metrics for emails sent on or after June 22, 2024. If you don’t exclude Apple MPP from your open-related metrics, we’ll show metrics for both.

How can I lessen the impacts of Apple MPP?

• Understand the size of the impact. To get an idea of the potential impact to your open rates, you can check how many contacts in your audience use Apple Mail. The greater the percentage of your audience that uses Apple Mail, the more likely you’ll see inflated open rates as a result of Apple MPP.

• Change how you measure success in your emails. If you’re not already doing so, we recommend that you focus on clicks as part of your email strategy. Also monitor your bounces, unsubscribes, and conversions. If your account is connected to an e-commerce store, you should also consider purchase data as a metric.

• Monitor your reach. Both contact ratings and email marketing engagement rely on opens, which may yield misleading results.

• Collect location info directly from your contacts. To populate your Audience Fields with city or ZIP code data, consider using a Mailchimp survey or form to ask contacts where they are located. To maximize your reach, you can create segments that combine audience fields with your contacts’ self-reported location information.

• Review your segments. If you’ve defined segments based on opens, contact rating, email client, location, or email marketing engagement, consider whether other operators or parameters are more appropriate.

• Update your active Customer Journeys or Classic Automations. If your trigger is based on opens, consider revising it to include stronger engagement criteria like clicks or purchases. If you want to preserve your historical data about your existing journey or automation, consider pausing it and creating a new one instead.

• Use different criteria when you resend an email. Because all emails to Apple Mail users may look as though they’ve been opened, resending to “did not open” may not reach as many contacts as you want. When you resend your email, consider sending to “did not click.”

• Update your A/B tests. If you’re running A/B tests based on open rates, your results might not be accurate. Consider using click rates instead.

• Use a different method to identify a contact’s email client. Although data about your contacts’ email client may be misleading when based solely on opens, data based on clicks is more accurate.

• Check your webhooks. If you use our Marketing or Transactional APIs, you’ll see inflated open rates in your webhooks, so consider whether to make any adjustments to how those are set up. Watch our Release Notes page for additional updates.

Can I estimate location and determine device type of contacts who opt into Apple MPP?

The location and device can't be determined based on opens for contacts who opt in to Apple MPP; however, we use other information such as sign up forms and click data to help you identify where your contacts are located.

How can I measure engagement without relying exclusively on opens?

We recommend that you use other winning metrics, such as clicks and double opt-in signup forms.

We’ll keep our Apple MPP article updated as we learn more and have additional recommendations. If you use our Marketing or Transactional APIs, you can monitor any changes we make on our Release Notes page. If you have other concerns, please contact our customer support team.