How to Turn Off the Read Message on iPhone
Read receipts are a handy feature for some people, but can be annoying for others. Luckily, it’s easy to turn them off on your iPhone.
This article will show you how to turn off the read message on your iPhone so that contacts can no longer see when you have read their iMessages.
- Go to Settings
The Settings application on your iPhone is one of the most important tools you have to adjust the way your device functions. It is used to control everything from your wireless signal and emails to the sounds and screen background of your phone. One setting that you may have accidentally turned on is iMessage read receipts, which show the sender when you have read their message. Thankfully, you can turn this feature off to stop your contacts from knowing when you’ve read their texts or iMessages.
If you’re not a fan of the iMessage read receipts or you would like to have more privacy, you can turn them off on your iPhone with just a few taps. To do so, open the Settings app on your phone and scroll down to the Messages option. You should see a toggle switch on the right side of the screen labeled “Send Read Receipts.” If the switch is on, it will be green; when the switch is off, it will look white and no longer be highlighted.
This will turn off read receipts for all iMessage conversations and any new ones that you may send in the future. It will not affect any existing messages or previous iMessages that you have already sent. You can always turn the feature back on if you decide to change your mind later.
Another setting you can adjust in the Messages section of your settings is whether or not to share your name and photo with other people in iMessage conversations. This is a great option if you want to keep your identity private and only chat with people that you trust.
You can also configure your iPhone to not show a full-screen alert when someone is calling you. This will allow you to use your iPhone while on a call, and will also save some battery life. The alert is not as attention-grabbing as the old full-screen display, and will make it easier to answer calls on your iPhone while you’re in a meeting or at work. However, you must keep in mind that your contact will not be able to hear when you are using the phone.
- Scroll down to Messages
Have you ever been in a texting situation where you want to respond to a message right away, but it’s too late? Perhaps you’re waiting for the right time to respond, or maybe you just don’t have the energy to text back at that moment. Whatever the reason, you don’t want to alert your sender that you’ve read their message. Fortunately, there’s a setting on an iPhone that can help you out. It’s called read receipts, and it allows you to let your senders know when you’ve seen their messages — even if you don’t immediately respond.
Thankfully, there’s an easy way to disable read receipts on an iPhone in just three steps. To do it, open the Settings app and scroll down to Messages. Then, tap the toggle switch next to “Send Read Receipts” to turn it off. This will stop your senders from knowing when you’ve read their messages, but it won’t affect any previously-sent iMessages.
You can also toggle read receipts on a conversation-by-conversation basis in the Messages app in iOS, iPadOS, or macOS. This is an easier way to control which conversations you want to keep enabled or disabled, and it works just the same as the global setting in Settings.
Once you’ve turned off read receipts, your text messages will no longer show a timestamp when the receiver opens them. This can be a relief if you’re in a conversation with someone who has a tendency to get upset when they see that you’ve read their messages, but it can also be frustrating for people who don’t want to give up this convenience.
If you want to turn read receipts back on, just tap the toggle switch again and make sure the “Send Read Receipts” option isn’t turned off. Just remember that if you turn read receipts on again, the switch will be green instead of grey. If you haven’t yet turned the feature on, it will be green by default. If you’re concerned that your privacy could be violated by a stranger, then it might be a good idea to disable read receipts completely.
- Toggle the Send Read Receipts switch to off
Read receipts are a useful feature for those who need to respond to messages quickly or urgently. However, some people may find it invasive to see their messages viewed by someone else. Fortunately, Apple makes it easy to disable read receipts on your iPhone in just three simple steps.
Open the Settings app on your iPhone. Then, scroll down and tap the option Messages. If the Send Read Receipts switch is green, it’s currently enabled. Toggle the switch to off to turn it off.
Once you’ve turned off read receipts for everyone, you can easily enable them again in the future by going back to Settings and tapping Messages. This time, the Send Read Receipts button should be grey instead of green. If you’re worried about enabling read receipts again by accident, you can also lock your phone screen. This will prevent you from accidentally enabling the feature when you’re using your iPhone for another task.
You can also toggle read receipts on or off for individual contacts. To do this, launch Messages on your iPhone or iPad and select a conversation with the contact you want to edit. Then, tap the person’s avatar at the top of the screen. Tap the i info button in the upper right corner of the interface, and then look for the Send Read Receipts checkbox.
This box will either be checked or unchecked. If it’s checked, the person you’re communicating with can see when you’ve read their message. If the box is unchecked, the person will only be able to tell you if they’ve read your message, but they won’t be notified when you read theirs.
This method is only effective for iMessage conversations. It will not work for SMS text messages, which are viewed by the recipient’s mobile carrier, not by the Messages app. Additionally, this method does not disable read receipts for other platforms, such as WhatsApp. If you use WhatsApp, you will need to turn off read receipts in that platform’s settings. However, you can still use this method to disable read receipts on your iPhone for iMessage conversations.
- Restart your device
Whenever you receive a message on an iPhone, you can opt to let the sender know that you’ve read it by enabling a feature called Read Receipts. This option can be enabled or disabled on a per-contact basis, and it also syncs across all of your other devices that use iMessage.
But recently, some users have reported that even when the Send Read Receipts switch is disabled on their iPhone or iPad, they’re still able to see when other people read their messages. The problem has cropped up in recent iOS and iPadOS releases, and it’s not clear how widespread the issue is.
Some users have found that restarting their device helps resolve the issue, at least temporarily. Apple typically provides relief for software bugs pretty quickly, so we expect a fix to be available soon.
If you’re not having any luck with the tips above, you can also try deleting some of your older iMessage conversations on each of your Apple devices. This can help improve iMessage performance and may resolve the problem. If you’re still having issues, you can also sign out of your Apple ID on each of your iPhones and iPads, then try signing back in. You can do this by opening Settings, then tapping Messages and then navigating to your Apple ID. From there, tap your Apple ID and select “Sign Out.” After doing this, reboot your device and check to see if the problem persists.