Wouldn’t it be great if you can easily keep track of your email attachments? By doing so, you can easily identify and locate the users who viewed and downloaded your files and documents. However, you cannot really expect such feature to be present in today’s most commonly used email services. So if you want to have such feature, you need to use a third-party app or extension. Speaking of which, Gmail users can supercharge their email accounts with a free email attachment tracking service called docTrackr.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

To be exact, docTrackr is a document control and tracking service. What it does is that it lets you gain full control over the files or documents that you want to send to your recipients. This simply means that you can track the users who viewed and downloaded your files. Aside from this, you can also delete or revoke the access to the files that you’ve sent as email attachments. It is also important to note that docTrackr features both free and paid plans. As for this review, I will be specifically reviewing its free browser extension that you can easily integrate with your Gmail account.

Pros

• Easy to install, easy to use
• Automatically integrates with your Gmail account
• There’s no limit to the number of files or documents that you can attach and send to your email recipients (only applicable for the Chrome browser extension)
• You can track the time and date that your file or document was downloaded, viewed, printed and edited
• Provides a detailed report of your email attachments – ex. location, activity, analytics, notifications, etc.
• You can set custom permissions
• You can remotely destroy your email attachments. You can also set a pre-defined document expiration date
• Uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption to secure your documents

Cons

• As of the moment, the docTrackr Chrome browser extension for Gmail only supports PDF documents. If you want to send a file with a different format, you can use its official web app but do keep in mind that the web app will only allow you to send, track and control up to ten documents per month (unless, of course, you opt to upgrade to its paid plan)
• You cannot preview your documents using Gmail’s built-in PDF viewer
• The browser extension doesn’t support other web browsers such as Safari and Firefox
• Does not support other email services, like Hotmail/Outlook, Yahoo, etc.

Discussion

With docTrackr, you can easily track and control the email attachments that you’ve sent to your recipients. It has a lot of great uses plus it’s also very easy to use. I also like the fact that it automatically integrates its features to your Gmail account. It also doesn’t matter if you are using multiple Gmail accounts.

To use this extension, you simply need to install it on your Chrome web browser. After which, it will automatically add its icon to your browser’s omnibar. In addition, it will also integrate its features to your Gmail account. Everything will be done automatically so all you need to do is to sit back and relax. Once everything’s all set, docTrackr will inform you that it has successfully integrated its features to your Gmail account. If you are not yet registered to docTrackr, then you will be prompted to create a free user account.

Now, if you want to control and monitor all of the PDF file attachments that you’ve sent, you simply need to click the docTrackr file attachment button on the “Compose” interface instead of the default file attachment button. Just remember that if you’re using the Chrome extension, you’re only allowed to attach PDFs but the developer did state that it plans to support more document formats.

So once you’ve successfully attached the file to your email, just click the “Send” button and then select the permissions that you want to give to your recipients. You can also set the time that you want your file attachment to expire.

All in all, I find docTrackr very easy to use. I also like the fact that its browser extension for Chrome does not limit the number of files that you can attach, send, view and track. Its tracking interface also provides a detailed report of your email attachments. So it’s easy to track the users who viewed and downloaded your PDF files. This tool can even determine their location. It’s just that if you use this extension on your Gmail account, your recipients won’t be able to view the PDF documents that you’ve sent using Gmail’s built-in PDF viewer. Since the documents are protected, the only way to view and read them is via Adobe Acrobat. Furthermore, this tool doesn’t work on other web browsers unless of course, you use the web app. The latter, however, will limit the number of files that you can send and track. The limit for the web app is ten documents per month.

Conclusion and download link

If you are looking for a reliable and efficient way to keep track of your email attachments, I strongly suggest that you try docTrackr. It’s a great tool that will help you in many ways. Like, for example, when you want to monitor the PDF newsletters that you’ve sent to your subscribers. You can also use this tool to secure and monitor all of the important documents that you’ve sent to your clients and customers. So go ahead and feel free to check it out.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 1.7.2

Requires: Google Chrome on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Linux and Mac OS X

docTrackr on Chrome Web Store