Skip to content
invitebird

Reading delivery and open status for each guest

How to see whether each guest's invitation was sent, delivered, opened, or bounced, and how the delivery health strip summarizes your whole send.

Last reviewed 4 min read

On this page7 sections
  1. Where to look
  2. The per-guest badge
  3. The delivery health strip
  4. Email versus text
  5. When a guest stays at "Sent"
  6. Common questions
  7. Related articles

After you send, InviteBird tracks what happened to each invitation and shows it right on your event. Here's how to read it, what each state means, and why email and text differ.

Where to look

Open your event and go to the Guests tab. You'll find delivery information in two places:

  • A delivery health strip near the top that summarizes the whole send.
  • A small status badge on each guest's row.

Both update automatically as delivery and open receipts arrive from the email and text providers, so it's worth checking back a little while after sending rather than expecting everything at once.

The per-guest badge

Each guest row shows the status of their most recent invitation or message:

  • Sent — the invitation has gone out and is on its way. This is the starting state.
  • Delivered — it reached the guest's inbox or phone. Hover to see when. A newer reminder that's still on its way doesn't undo this.
  • Opened — the guest opened the email. Hover to see when they first opened it, and how many times if more than once. Treat an open as a hint, not proof — some mail apps (Apple Mail, for one) report an open on their own.
  • Bounced (email) or Not delivered (text) — it couldn't be delivered. Hover for the reason when one is available.

A row generally moves Sent → Delivered → Opened as receipts come in. Each guest row also shows a Last invited note, so you can see how recently you reached out — handy before sending another reminder.

The delivery health strip

The strip rolls the whole send into a few counts:

  • Delivered — reached the inbox or phone.
  • Opened — email invitations that were opened.
  • Bounced — sends that failed.
  • Unopened — emails that were delivered but not opened yet, from guests who haven't replied. A guest who answers without opening the email isn't counted — the reply is what the open was waiting for.

These counts follow the invitations, reminders and messages you send. A guest's own RSVP confirmation email isn't counted, so a guest you invited by link or on paper never shows as "reached by email" just because their confirmation arrived.

The strip's one action is Full funnel, which opens the Analytics tab. From a funnel stage there, Remind non-responders drops you onto the guests still awaiting a reply. See Resending invitations and sending RSVP reminders.

Email versus text

Open tracking is available for email only. A text message can show as Sent, Delivered, or Not delivered, but never Opened — phones don't report when a text is read. So a guest reached by text who has clearly seen your event may still show only Delivered, and that's expected. For the same reason, texts never count toward the Opened or Unopened tallies in the health strip.

When a guest stays at "Sent"

If most guests move to Delivered or Opened but one stays at Sent, a common reason is that the guest has unsubscribed from email. InviteBird respects that by quietly holding back the email, so it never advances to Delivered and never bounces — it simply stays at Sent, and the row wears a small Unsubscribed chip. See Unsubscribed and suppressed guests. Other causes — a wrong address, a full mailbox, spam filtering — are covered in A guest didn't receive their invitation.

Common questions

How long until statuses update? Delivery and open receipts arrive from the providers over time, not instantly. Give it a little while after sending and check back — the badges and strip refresh on their own.

Why does a guest show "Delivered" but not "Opened"? Either they haven't opened it yet, or they were reached by text (texts never report opens). A delivered email that stays unopened is a good candidate for a reminder.

What does "Bounced" mean? The email couldn't be delivered — often a mistyped or closed address. Double-check the address and resend, or reach the guest another way.

A guest opened it several times — can I see that? Yes. Hover the Opened badge to see when they first opened it and, if applicable, how many times.

One guest is stuck at "Sent" while everyone else moved on — why? The most likely reason is that they unsubscribed from email, so InviteBird holds the message back. See Unsubscribed and suppressed guests.

Was this helpful?

Related articles