
In advance of the holiday shopping season, Gmail has added a package tracking tool.
Today, Google unveiled a quick but helpful change to Gmail that will enable users to track incoming package deliveries right from their inbox in the near future.
The feature looks for emails that include tracking numbers, analyses that information to determine the expected delivery date of the order, and immediately notifies you in your inbox of this information.
This implies that you won't need to click on your order confirmation emails in order to know when your package will arrive when you're browsing through your email list in Gmail. Instead, a tiny green label with this information will appear in the inbox just below the sender's name and subject line of the email.
Normally, customers must open their order confirmation emails, copy the tracking information, and then paste it into the systems of the appropriate carriers, Google, or click on a provided link to start tracking the order, for example. All they have to do now is check their Gmail inbox.
The order confirmation email will now have a summary card at the top that provides a little more information and includes a timeline with checkmarks that indicates the current order status—order placed, shipped, or delivered—as well as a link that leads to the order detail page. However, if you choose to open the order confirmation email.
According to Google, 'most major' U.S. freight companies will start offering the new feature in the coming weeks. The availability of this feature is scheduled to occur before the hectic holiday shopping season.
Before enabling package monitoring, Gmail will first ask users in a pop-up at the top of the inbox if they would like to opt-in to receive tracking updates. Depending on their preferences, users can select 'Allow' or 'Immediately now.' You may enable this in the Gmail settings as well.
Naturally, the method entails scanning your email for tracking information, but this is done automatically; no one is actually reading your email. However, this may raise privacy concerns for others, especially if Gmail decides to use this information to inform its numerous advancements in e-commerce and first-party shopping tools.
Although Shopify's Shop app offers more features beyond tracking, such as the ability to browse and purchase from Shopify merchants, the latter could be affected by the new addition in terms of how widely used popular third-party package tracking apps like Parcel, Route, AfterShip, and others are perceived.
Later, according to Google, the package tracking tool will be expanded to automatically update the label when a delivery is delayed and move that email to the top of users' inboxes to ensure that they are informed.