USPS tests program to email photos of letters before they arrive

Under a pilot program called “Informed Delivery”, the USPS is emailing people photographs of the front side of their mail every morning before it is delivered, reports Quartz. While Informed Delivery is free to use, it’s only available to residential customers in Northern Virginia, NYC and CT with further expansion “being considered” for 2016. It’s still snail mail, but at least you know the snail’s coming your way. The process helps it sort mail, according to the postmaster general. In comparison, only 19% of 455 marketers in the study now offer snail mail-based promotions.

Extra photos will also be provided on the user’s online account, where it will also be able to monitor packages that are now en route.

The Postal Service’s new Informed Delivery service resembles Outbox, a startup the USPS fought in 2013.

If you’re shipping Christmas and other holiday packages this season, the U.S. Postal Service suggest you do it as early as possible. But the USPS has also provided the photos to law-enforcement agencies in criminal cases, including ricin-laced letters sent to USA president Barack Obama and Michael Bloomberg, then mayor of New York City.

Informed Delivery is not available for businesses at this time, but consumers can sign up to begin receiving inbox notifications of their mailbox.