This article was published on December 7, 2015

The USPS is rolling out a feature that emails you images of your actual mail


The USPS is rolling out a feature that emails you images of your actual mail

Email may be stepping on the throat of snail mail, but that’s not stopping the USPS. The national postal service is testing a service dubbed Informed Delivery that actually emails you images of what’s waiting in your physical mailbox.

Up to ten images can be seen via email per day. If you’ve somehow got more mail that that, the USPS will let you see all of your incoming mail images via an online dashboard (the same place you do things like track packages).

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If you want to give Informed Delivery a shot, all you need is a My USPS account, which is free. It’s also only available to residential users — businesses are out of luck.

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Interestingly, the USPS says the service has been in a dormant beta period in parts of Virginia since 2014. Now, it’s rolling out to the New York City metro area and Connecticut. Expansion into other areas is planned for 2016.

A good idea for those traveling who may need a friend or family member to grab an important piece of mail for them, it’s hard to overlook that this feature is a few years past its sell-by date.

Informed Delivery [USPS]

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