Categories: News

Your Christmas care package posted with “video stamps”

WHEN you receive a care package from home this Christmas, DON’T throw away the envelope. Get your iPhone and scan the stamp for a recorded message from your loved ones.

Australia Post has released a world-first “video stamp”. Senders scan a code on the stamp with their smart phone, record a message via the Australia Post app, and then stick the stamp to the parcel.

When you receive the parcel you can view the message by scanning the stamp using any QR-code reader on your smartphone or tablet. Or you can visit the Australia Post website and key in a unique code.

Messages can be viewed for up to three months after they have been recorded, so you can watch it over and over again. And you can also share the recordings via social media.

The “video stamps” will be trialled over the Christmas period. If all goes to plan, they will be rolled out long term.

Australia Post have created “a few million” stamps, each with unique barcodes, a spokeswoman said.

Richard Umbers, the head of parcel services at Australia Post, said the stamps would help “eliminate the tyranny of distance”.

The stamps, which hit stores on Monday, are free with Express Post and Express Courier International products.