How to reach us
Email is the way to reach us, at support@pigeontrail.com. If you write from the address you sign in with, we can find your account without asking you anything else, and if your question is about one letter, the tracking link or the buyer's name helps us find it quickly.
We will never ask for your sign in code, so please don't send it to anyone, including us.
Signing in and passkeys
In the iPhone app, type your email address and tap Email me a code. We send you a 6 digit code that works once and expires in 10 minutes. On the website, we email you a sign in link instead, and that link also works once and expires in 15 minutes. If the email hasn't arrived after a minute or two, look in your spam folder and then ask for a new one.
You don't need to sign up separately. When an email address signs in for the first time, the same steps open a free PigeonTrail account for it.
A passkey lets you sign in with Face ID, Touch ID or your screen lock, so you don't have to wait for an email. To add one in the app, open More, then Settings, and tap Add a passkey. On the website, you add and remove passkeys in Settings under Account. If a passkey ever fails, you can still sign in with an email code.
The app and your plan
The PigeonTrail app is free to download, and it works with a free PigeonTrail account. Nothing is sold inside the app.
If you have a paid plan or credits, you manage them on the website. Sign in at pigeontrail.com and open Settings, then Plan and billing, where you can switch plans, change your card, see your invoices or cancel. The app shows which plan you're on under More, then Settings.
Getting good reads from the scanner
The Scan tab reads the PigeonTrail barcode printed on your envelopes. Look up opens a letter as soon as its barcode is in view, and it works on every account. The mail run, which is part of Pro and Shop, reads one envelope after another and marks those letters mailed when you tap Done.
- Print your envelopes at 100%, which some print dialogs call Actual size, and never use Fit to page, because a shrunken barcode is hard for the camera and for USPS to read.
- Scan in good light, and tap the flashlight button on the scanner when the room is dim.
- Hold the stack under the light and slide one envelope at a time past the band on the screen, with the barcode flat and facing the camera.
- Keep the barcode clear of tape and smudges, and make sure it isn't hidden by the edge of an envelope window, since the camera needs to see every bar.
- An amber outline means the barcode isn't on one of your letters, so it stays out of the run, which happens with an envelope printed by another PigeonTrail account. A thin blue outline means that letter is already in the run, and it only counts once.
- You can scan without a signal. The scans wait on your phone and go out when you're back online, and Today shows a banner while they wait.
- If the app asks for camera access, open the iPhone's Settings app, find PigeonTrail and turn on Camera.
When a letter hasn't moved
USPS scans letters on its sorting machines rather than at the mailbox, so the first scan comes when a letter reaches a plant, and a day can pass between scans. We call a letter behind only once it is more than a day past the date USPS expects it, and you can see that date on the letter's page in the app or on the website.
When USPS marks a letter delivered, that is USPS's estimate from the carrier's route that day, because nobody scans a letter at the door. Our guide to what each USPS scan means explains the scans in more detail.
Deleting your account
If you own the account, you can delete it in the iPhone app. Open More, then Settings, scroll down to Delete your account, tap Delete my account and confirm. You're signed out on every device right away, and we delete your letters, orders, address book, envelope design and connections within a day. We keep only the payment records that tax law requires.
Deleting can't be undone, and the tracking links you've sent stop working. If you pay for a plan, it ends that day without a refund for the time left on it, and any credits you haven't used are lost with the account. If your Shopify store is connected, we stop using it right away, but the PigeonTrail app stays installed in Shopify until you remove it there.
You can also ask us to do it for you. Write to support@pigeontrail.com from the email address on the account and ask us to delete it, and we'll reply when it's done.
Your privacy
Our privacy policy explains what PigeonTrail collects, how long we keep it and who we share it with. The app shows no ads and has no analytics or tracking of any kind, and it sends us only what your account needs to work. The terms cover the rest of how the service works.