The next iPhone software, iOS 15, is due to go live soon, most likely within days of Apple’s September Keynote on Tuesday, the 14th. This update will include privacy changes to the iPhone Mail App which may impact the geolocation data SalesMail is able to obtain for Opens and Views from some iPhone users who receive your SalesMail messages.  Here are the important facts:

• The changes Apple is making will not impact your ability to use the SalesMail app on your iPhone.
• SalesMail will still be able to track Opens and Views for your videos.
• The Opens and Views for the videos you send to some iPhone users may have less specific geographic information than usual. 

Let’s dig into a bit more detail.

iPhone Mail App users are expected to see something like this when they open the app after the iOS 15 update:

We anticipate many users will choose to “protect mail activity” by hiding IP addresses and privately loading all remote content. When your SalesMail video is sent to someone who uses the iPhone Mail App on iOS 15 and who has also chosen to protect their mail activity, the geolocation data available on Opens from these users will be limited since Apple will hide their IP address. This geolocation data available on Opens from SalesMail recipients who use other mail providers such as Gmail, Outlook, Android mail apps, etc. will remain unaffected by this change.  

Apple will also offer a paid option called Cloud+ which as the ability to mask the IP address when a user is using the Safari web browser. We think fewer users will choose to pay for this option. SalesMail will not be able to obtain location data for the SalesMail Views that come from people who subscribe to Cloud+.

The geolocation information provided in SalesMail has always been, and will continue to be, reliant upon data the recipient’s ISP and/or mobile device company provides. It is not perfect information and does not always provide a precise location. The most important thing is to focus on getting recipients to view your SalesMail video and take some action afterward, such as comment, email you back, call you, schedule time with you, click on a Call To Action button, etc.  Geolocation info should only be used as supplementary information.