What are delivery receipts?

This feature appears in the message interface as a timestamp of when each user last delivered a message in a specific channel. Delivery receipts provide feedback to the sender, assuring them that their message has reached its destination without any errors or issues. Though similar, delivery receipts are different from read receipts.

Benefits of delivery receipts

• Improved user experience: Before delivery receipts, senders were left in the dark about why their message was unread. Did the server fail to deliver? Is the internet connection unreliable? Or has the recipient simply not read the message yet? Delivery receipts eliminate this uncertainty for users, creating transparency and a more enjoyable user experience.

• Messaging performance: It’s important for businesses to know that messages are reaching the audience as intended. Delivery receipts show the real-time status of sent messages, allowing a business to spot and resolve issues to ensure effective communications.

• In-demand feature: The world’s top messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, provide users with delivery receipts. In turn, users have come to expect the assurance that their message has been successfully delivered while using other chat services.

Uses cases for delivery receipts

• In-app chat: Users appreciate the reassurance that their message has reached its intended recipient. This added transparency helps to improve engagement.

• Operations: Professional tools like Slack provide the delivery receipts feature to ensure teams are on-task and up-to-date, especially with time-sensitive projects.

• Customer support: Delivery receipts inform users that support agents have received their inputs, helping users gauge the effectiveness of the support experience in real time.

• Marketplaces: Businesses can use delivery receipts to confirm that their order updates, shipment notifications, and package tracking details have been delivered to customers’s devices.

• Healthcare: Providers and professionals can confirm that patients’ devices have received important information, such as prescriptions or appointment reminders.

• Financial services: Banks and FinTech apps use delivery receipts to confirm that account statements, transaction alerts, and investment opportunities have reached users.

• Education: Teachers can use delivery receipts to confirm that students have received educational resources and assignments.

Delivery receipts give businesses and users valuable insight into the delivery status of their messages, helping to ensure effective communications. This feature is available in the SDKs (software development kits) and UI (user interface) kits provided by Sendbird and other leading in-app communications platforms. These kits allow developers to easily build and customize the delivery receipts feature for their specific project, without coding the elements from scratch.