Countdown timer answers

The questions that come up once a countdown is already in a campaign — why a client renders it the way it does, and what can actually be done about it. Where a limitation has no fix, we say so rather than selling around it.

• Do countdown timers work in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail?

  Which email clients render live countdown timers, what Outlook does differently, and why every timer in this category is an image rather than real JavaScript.

• Why is my countdown timer frozen in Apple Mail?

  Why a countdown timer looks stuck in Apple Mail, how Mail Privacy Protection prefetching causes it, and what can and cannot be done about it.

• Why does my countdown timer look wrong in Gmail dark mode?

  Why a countdown timer keeps its light background when Gmail switches to dark mode, why transparent GIFs are not the fix, and what actually works.

• How do evergreen countdown timers work, and which merge tag do I use?

  How per-recipient evergreen countdown timers work, and the exact recipient-ID merge tag to use in Mailchimp, Klaviyo, HubSpot, Marketo, Salesforce and more.

• Should a countdown be an image or an iframe?

  Why email countdowns must be images and web countdowns should be iframes, what each format costs you, and how to keep both in sync from one design.

• What size should an email countdown timer be?

  What size to make an email countdown timer, why ~600px is the practical ceiling, and how retina screens and mobile clients change the answer.

Just getting started? See setup guides for your email platform or how to embed a countdown on your website.