WASHINGTON — The Postal Service’s Delivercheer.com holiday website offers a free multi-media animated augmented reality smartphone (AR) app that builds excitement among senders and recipients of gifts mailed in Priority Mail boxes.

“Our app adds that special touch by delivering cheer when mailing and receiving holiday gifts via Priority Mail,” said U.S. Postal Service Chief Customer and Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President James Cochrane. “In addition to offering this entertaining app, Delivercheer.com allows you to buy stamps, order free boxes, schedule a free package pickup, find Post Office and collection box locations and determine mailing dates.”

The App is easy to set up
From a link on Delivercheer.com, download the free “USPS AR” app to your smartphone.

Once you open the app, align the brackets on your phone screen with the blue “track and insured” shield on a Postal Service Priority Box to trigger the app.

The app creates an entertaining smartphone digital experience. There also are buttons at the bottom of the screen that allow you to take a still photo or a video of the experience with friends and family as it happens. You can save it, send it, and even share it on social media.

The Experiences
For senders, there is a choice of animated messages designed to build excitement for the gift being mailed — a reindeer tangled in Christmas tree lights or a penguin and other wildlife huddled near an igloo.

For recipients, imagine a grandmother receiving a photo or video on her smartphone of her grandchild thanking her after opening a holiday gift. Recipients can easily do this with a choice of animated messages to say “Thank You” that include a snowman or dancing or gingerbread characters.

Delivering for the Holidays
The Postal Service expects to deliver more than 16 billion cards, letters, flats and packages during the 2016 holiday season. As the nation’s largest e-commerce deliverer, the Postal Service is projecting that approximately 750 million packages will be delivered this holiday season — a 12-percent increase in volume compared to last year.

In time for the holidays, the Postal Service will offer real-time delivery notifications — meaning customers who sign up for alerts at myusps.com will receive notification within a few minutes of the delivery scan for select packages.

For additional news and updates throughout the season, please visit the USPS Holiday Newsroom.

# # #

Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at about.usps.com/news/welcome.htm.

More USPS holiday news, including shipping deadlines and Santa mail, can be found at usps.com/holidaynews.

For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional, please go to about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf. Follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/usps), Instagram (instagram.com/uspostalservice), Pinterest (pinterest.com/uspsstamps), LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/usps), subscribe to our channel on YouTube (youtube.com/usps), like us on Facebook (facebook.com/usps) and view our Postal Postsblog (uspsblog.com).

For more information about the Postal Service, visit usps.com and usps.com/postalfacts.