Find Out What You’re Getting In The Mail Before It’s Delivered (No Crystal Ball Required)
Updated: August 2, 2019
Tired of waiting around to see what’s coming in the mail?
With the United States Postal Service’s Informed Delivery service, residential customers can use any smartphone, tablet, or computer to view a scan of the mail that is due to be delivered each day! This FREE service has been available since 2017.
When postal customers opt-in for USPS Informed Delivery, they receive daily emails containing grayscale images of the letter-sized mail pieces scheduled to arrive that day. Customers also have the option to track their packages, leave delivery instructions if they won’t be home to receive a package, or schedule re-delivery of a missed package.
To sign up, simply visit Informed Delivery and enter your zip code to see if Informed Delivery is available in your area. Then log in to your My USPS account (or sign up if you don’t have one) and follow the instructions to opt-in.
Keep your eye on the sky for packages delivered by Amazon Prime Air Delivery!
All signed up… amazing!
Sweet!
I signed up for this about 2 weeks ago, and I love it!
Awesome! Glad to hear it!
Seems like a waste of time for postal employees and they will probably have to increase the cost of postage again to allow this in all areas. Terrible idea!
How is it a waste of time? I’m pretty sure they keep records of this already and all they have to do is query the database and setup a few parameters to have the email sent to the customer and then it is all automated once you fill out the form.
I’ve worked there in the past and I know how busy it is. They are offering it for free now, but when larger cities become available they will have to make up for the time spent scanning and sending out the emails somehow, possibly adding new positions to fulfill the emails, etc. It just seems like another way to increase the cost of postage. If they increase the cost in the future because of this, its definitely something I could live without personally.
Adding new positions=more jobs. I think thats great.
But government jobs aren’t the best way to get more jobs. We need private enterprise to generate it.
We don’t keep records of things like this at the post office
So, I just signed up (after my mail was delivered) and was able to view the recent history of my mail already, so it’s not really going to take anymore of their time.
I’m guessing that it’s already part of the automated process. That the processing machines will scan and sort them as they scan and sort the flat mail.
I worked for USPS in data entry a decade ago. At the time they were already scanning mail as part of the sorting process. I had to enter the address in the system if the computer wasn’t able to decipher the address due to poor handwriting, etc. I suspect they are using these same scans, so it won’t be a huge additional cost.
I agree. something I’ll never use and costs comes from somewhere! Tax payers
This isn’t wasting any employee time. Nobody is sitting there scanning in envelopes.
A machine scans them in, likely the same one that does the sorting.
Not available for me yet…. But I’m pretty sure I’ll sign up when it comes to my area. 👍
Anyone try this yet? How does it work? Is it actually useful or pointless since you are getting the items in the mail the same day?
Its great when you are out of town and have someone checking it only a couple times while you are gone…
My mail usually arrives by 10 am…I can’t imagine I’d use the service
My mail comes at 4. I still can’t imagine caring.
Right, I can wait to see junkmail.
This might be helpful if you are on vacation or at work and need to know if an important piece of mail came.
Most of the mail I get these days are junk mail, so I’m not sure how useful this would be for me.
This would be nice for the day’s I come home to find the wind blew my mail box open and my mail is scattered all over my neighborhood, and the post office says sorry and does nothing, at least I would know what I didn’t find
it sounds like more of a personal problem than the post offices… you should look into getting a box that closes more securely
Well said
What do you expect the Post Office to do? Put up a secure mailbox!SMH
That’s a big difference when it is the weather and a mailbox issue. I watch our mailman open and then not shut mailboxes, blatantly leaving them wide open. That is a legitimate post office problem.
Just a thought….some people have PO boxes that are across town. Now they don’t have to waste a trip to the box they can look and see online if anything worth picking up is there….like a check or bill. If it’s just junk….it can wait!
This may be kind of useful. Iowa winters are usually pretty cold, and my mailbox is four houses away in one of those “cluster mailboxes.” (I know, 4 houses is sooooo far. LOL) When this becomes available in my area, I will know which days are worth making a trip down the hill.
I just signed up due to an issue that arose with my mail earlier this week. Our regular carrier is on vacation this week and his fill-in misdelivered the mail on my street. That evening I was worried about who received my mail and what may have been included in the batch (anything with personal account information). If this sort of thing happens again it would be nice to know exactly what pieces of my mail ended up in someone else’s hands.
I get mail for a random house at least once a week. At the worst point it was nearly every day. I can’t imagine how much of my mail has been misdelivered and/or lost. I complained and they suggested bringing in the incorrect mail to the post office every time this happens. I don’t bother doing that. Just drop in the dropbox. Wish they would pay attention to what they are doing. Hopefully this new service will make it easier to hold them responsible.
I agree. We moved across the country recently. I had set my mail hold up a few days before leaving our house that we sold. I kept getting mail delivered and called for 3 days before it finally stopped coming. The guy I spoke to said my route currently didnt have one set person and apparently who ever fills-in is not checking forward status. Nice…. Though it stopped being delivered when we left, I still wonder how much might still be slipping thru to our old house.
mail hold then forward to the new address that is*
I just wish I got my mail….😔. I may get my own mail once a week… And my local PO is not at all helpful, making excuse after excuse. Can’t wait til this comes to my area…then maybe I will at least know what I never get in my mailbox!
When I get other people’s mail that’s nowhere near me, I leave it in my box with the pick up arrow up. If it’s my neighbors, I’ll walk it over.
We do the same but rarely does anyone bring our mail to us. We receive mail weeks late with multiple postmarks. Anyone want to trade neighbors?
I currently get this through Fed Ex. Whenever my address is used, I automatically get an alert that a package is on the way. It is very helpful with Pinecone deliveries because they don’t tell you if something is coming your way. So I can keep an eye out for it. I wish UPS offered this or maybe they do and I am not signed up for it. I will definitely check now.
I order so many things here and there that it is hard to keep track of deliveries. I live in an apt complex and constantly have packages stolen from me.
I get notifications for both UPS and FedEx. I have a folder set up for shipping confirmations through my email and I automatically get notified that a package to my address is on the way, the expected delivery date, and the actual delivery conformation. It really is helpful to know that a package is coming when you have to be out of town unexpectedly or when packages come early as they often do with Amazon.
I have been getting the same thing thru all carriers whenever my address is used. I get emails whenever an item is out for delivery. Its nice because my carrier comes after dark and I forgot to check the mail. But If I see I have an email saying a package was delivered, then Ill go pick it up.
Hi there Daniela! You’re in luck, UPS offers this as a FREE service as well! I use it and it’s great. Just head over here to sign up: https://www.ups.com/mychoice/welcome.html 🙂
UPS My Choice is amazing! I love being able to see what’s coming but you can also reroute a delivery to a local UPS store or a neighbor’s house at no charge.
Ups does offer this. It’s called my choice.
I just signed up! I’m excited to see how it works and what scans I get. I’m glad they did this step. Since all first class mail is scanned, this isn’t an additional scan. It is just additional to email the summary to us, but that can be automated. Finally, the USPS is catching up to technology for residential addresses!
I had this for over a year already and it’s great.
Cool! Thanks for sharing Jessica!
I’m more interested in getting my actual USPS mail/packaged delivered to the right house.
I live in a high rise building and on Saturdays it’s really annoying to go all the way down to the lobby just to open an empty mailbox. First world, lazy american problem, but this will solve it.
I wish this was in my area! We have a ‘strange’ mail carrier and sometimes our mail takes an extra week or more to reach us even coming from nearby. We’ve also had mail slightly opened when I receive them – it is usually only items that look like financial information (like hubby’s paystubs when they had to be mailed)! At least I would be able to tell if mail is being held on purpose and if the items already looked like they were opened before they went out for delivery. I can’t wait!!
I live in an Atlanta neighborhood where mail theft is on the rise. Thieves are even breaking into locked, group boxes inside buildings. Many of our residents also receive the wrong mail on a regular basis thanks to ever-changing postal carriers. Entire Atlanta neighborhoods are being told to sign up for this service. It won’t stop incorrect deliveries or theft, but at least it might help a person know if something important fails to show that day. The Post Office already photographs and records every piece of mail you receive (as it scans the zip code), so this service is an easy and logical service to provide customers.
I get other people mail in my mailbox, I place them back in my mailbox with a note (when I don’t have time to drop it in the correct mailbox) to let the mail person know but they are usually still in there days later because they just ignore it. I don’t know gen put important mail in the box to pick up because I know it will be there for days.
I wonder who is getting some of my mail? So this will be interesting, when it comes to my area I’ll sign up. Thanks for the heads up 🌺
I’ve had this for a month. My email usually comes around 7:30am but sometimes I get it around 9:39am. When you don’t get an email, it means either no mail or it’s a magazine, catalog or large package. I thought it was pretty neat in the beginning, but it does kinda take the joy and surprise out of opening the mailbox and seeing what’s there. I have skipped going to the mailbox a couple times when I know it’s nothing but junk in there. It has notified me a little early about tax documents and important items I was waiting on. Overall, I like it.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience! Good to know you have been pleased with it!
Hi I sign up for ups delivery digest and this app have been great with seeing what mail I was getting in my mailbox but today I saw they inform me that I would receive a mail and I didn’t receive anything when they showed me a picture of yhe mail I was suppose to receive today
Also there is a link in the notification email that you can click and let the post office know if you didn’t receive a letter. This should really help a lot of people.
Sweet! Thanks for the heads up!
It’s available for my area. This is perfect for us. We have a mail box system that has all the boxes for each apt in my building inside of the entry way. Some days I don’t get mail…even though that seems odd. Folks can use their keys to jiggle the lock mechanism to drop allowing someone else’s box to open. I was thinking about getting an alarm….the transmitter/receive type set up that would let me know if mail had been placed in my box. Definitely going to give this new Postal Service thing a try. For my peace of mind at least.
I think I would go get a PO box if someone else had the ability of opening my box with their key. At least you would have peace of mind that your mail wouldn’t get into the wrong hands.
Says it’s available in Minnesota? I signed up, although I already had signed up for Priority Mail notifications, as well as UPS & FedEx notifications. I like knowing when packages are arriving (or have been delivered) so that they aren’t sitting out front in the slight chance of getting stolen.
FedEx Delivery Manager: http://www.fedex.com/us/delivery/
UPS My Choice: http://www.ups.com/mychoice/welcome.html
Frequently I get other folks mail that have the same house number but different street address. Also have had firecrackers put in my mailbox & dvds stolen & other mail burned up. So yes…I will definitely sign up for the service.
OMGosh! I can’t wait for this! My mail gets misdelivered and/or never delivered all the time! It’s been a struggle for YEARS! This will change my life lol! My post office is gonna hate me… more.
I guess I’m the oddball here! Not interested in my personal mail being scanned. Nope no thanks.
Me either lol. I guess we can be the two oddballs 😉 . Plus I love being surprised by what’s in my mailbox, every now and then a unexpectant piece of mail comes an it makes my day. Weird but true haha.
I wish they would scan packages! Most of my flat mail is junk 🙁
Hi there Donna! You can sign up for package notifications on the USPS website as well! Head to their site and login to your My USPS account, from there you will click Track & Manage, then My USPS, then select Package Dashboard. Hope that helps! 🙂
I can see this being useful for some, but I think I’ll pass. I get almost all my bills/privacy notices/etc through email, I mostly get coupons and junk mail in my mailbox. We’ve been lucky to have great mail deliverers. Now, if there was a way to indicate that someone doesn’t live at your address (that you’ve lived at for years), and to stop sending mail, that would be awesome!! We’ve lived here almost 4 years and we still get mail for past residents. Lol not to mention the sheriff’s office/bounty hunters looking for someone who skipped bail.
Send it back to sender
I agree! I’ve lived in my home for over 5 years, but it was a rental before we bought it. We still get mail for about 5 different people. I return it, but it gets annoying when it’s multiple times per week.
UPS offers a similar service and I love getting those notifications! Thank you for the update, I haven’t heard about this yet!
I live in an apartment complex that has several different buildings each with their own address. It’s important for the postal carrier to look at the number AND the letter of each building. I’m 417A and 417B is next door so you can imagine how many times we get the wrong mail or have packages delivered to the wrong building. This service is a godsend!! Thank you for letting us know about it!
This is great! I had packages stolen off my porch even with a security camera installed! It will be good to know what packages to expect that day and be on the look out.
Thanks Collin.
You’re welcome Maria!
Thanks for posting. I signed up.
Glad to hear it! You’re so welcome!
Hi all! Being a mail carrier myself, I think this could benefit more then we realize. Those who run businesses, get monthly checks, etc. This service can tell you when to keep an eye on your box, scammers, and thieves, are constantly hitting up mail boxes and taking anything inside! And I know some people end up with lowsy carriers, but please understand that memorizing 600+ names and addresses is no easy task, especially for newbies, learning multiple mail routes. I put a label in my boxes with the current last name of who lives there if it gets a lot of bad names, maybe give that a try so it’s a reminder to the carrier. Also don’t hesitate to leave notes in the box for the carrier to read, we don’t know unless you tell us lol! I love having communication open with my customers, especially those who order alot online! I prefer them contact me directly instead of the office, because messages don’t always get relayed, whether it be a not, or a text. I promise we’re not all bad 😀
Thanks so much for sharing your helpful tips Stacey! Good to know! 😉
Hi Collin, is this is SCAM? I had signed up for this service and have been getting emails daily for a week. Yesterday we did not get the mail that was in the email, so as per the FAQ I called the local post office and they told that this is a Scam and we should not be opening such email. They also told that they have been getting such inquiries lately and they have refereed it to the investigation dept. Can you please confirm?
How odd, as I still find this to be valid, through the United States Postal Service, for select locations. Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Collin, thanks for your reply. I called the USPS customer service number and they confirmed it is a valid and legit service by USPS and the local USPS guy must not be aware of this. This is sad, however, it is good to know that there is no such SCAM. They will now follow up on my missing mail and notify me accordingly.
I am exceedingly sad that I can’t sign up for this service because I don’t know the answers to the detailed security questions having to do with MY PERSONAL LOANS.
The USPS is better informed of my private affairs than I am.
So this service is unavailable to me.
Typical.
And more than a little disturbing.