Royal Mail hopes smart stamps will encourage letter sending

Royal Mail hopes the new stamps will encourage more people to send letters

The Royal Mail has launched an intelligent stamp using a smartphone app, and says that it hopes this will encourage more people to send mail.

The stamp uses image recognition technology, which, when activated by an iPhone or an Android smartphone, will launch exclusive online content created by the Royal Mail.

Users have to download the Junaio app from either the iPhone or Android Apps store and select the Royal Mail channel to activate the service.

The first of these stamps will be issued as part of the Great British Railways set. Smartphone users can scan the stamp to watch a short film of a reading of the poem The Night Mail. The poem was commissioned by the Royal Mail 75 years ago.

“The whole idea is to put stamps in the public eye again,” said Philip Parker, spokesman for Royal Mail Stamps.

“We want to attract a modern audience as well as intrigue some of our existing customers who may also have a smartphone.”