USPS will start sending digital notifications of your mail before it actually arrives in your mailbox.
The new service, which is called Informed Delivery, is optional and will be rolled out in the Seattle area in mid-April.
It will send an email containing grayscale images of letter-sized mail that will be arriving soon to residential users. The images show the exterior, address-side of the letter only.
Select areas of the U.S. have already been using Informed Delivery.
Ernie Swanson, communications program specialist for the Seattle district of USPS, says the pilot program was successful.
"If you are expecting something valuable, airline tickets or checks or something like that, you will know that it is in your mail that day, and you'll know to plan on it," said Swanson. "Everybody is doing things electronically and online these days, so, we feel it provides a service a lot of people will be interested in."
The service does not include packages or magazines. It only applies to residential, letter-sized mail at this point, according to Swanson.
