The United States Postal Service announced yesterday a new feature that it plans to release soon called Informed Delivery. This new service will provide you with a sneak peek of sorts for your upcoming mail at no extra cost via the dashboard in your My USPS account on the web and app or you may choose to receive it in your email. This new product can be helpful in many circumstances such as when you may be expecting important mail when you’re out of town. This will you allow you to take action before the mail comes to your house such as asking the post office to hold that mail. In some cases, you may also be able to interact with some of the mail images, which will likely apply to “junk mail” such as credit card offers.
The USPS already digitally scans the front of our mail as part of the sorting process, so it has decided to use those already existing images to allow us to see what’s coming. There is no need to worry about the inside content of your mail as it will not be scanned. As of right now only letter sized mail will be included meaning mail like magazines, large envelopes and packages will not be included. There are plans to include the large envelopes and magazines at a later date. Notifications are sent out daily Monday-Saturday at 9AM when the mail is processed and if you visit the online dashboard the notifications will be available for seven days.
If you wish to sign up you should visit the USPS website, create an account and in about three business days you should start receiving notifications. It should be noted that at this time the service is not available for all zip codes and locations. The website has its ZIP Code lookup tool to see if your area offers the service. Also living in an apartment building can cause an initial delay for the service as there are some additional steps the USPS must take to ensure everything is coded correctly before it is available.