How to Turn Off Read Receipts?

On iPhone, go to Settings → Apps → Messages and turn off Send Read Receipts. On older iOS the path is Settings → Messages. Other people will then see "Delivered" instead of "Read" on your iMessages.

Each app handles this separately, so switching it off in one place doesn't affect the others.

iPhone / iMessage:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apps → Messages (or just Messages on iOS 17 and earlier).
3. Scroll to Send Read Receipts.
4. Toggle it off.

The per-contact setting most people don't know about. You can keep read receipts on generally but disable them for one person, or the reverse:

1. Open the conversation in Messages.
2. Tap the contact's name or photo at the top.
3. Toggle Send Read Receipts for that person only.

This is useful when you want your partner or family to see you've read a message, but not your work contacts.

Note: this only affects iMessage (blue bubbles). SMS text messages (green bubbles) don't support read receipts at all.

Instagram: Instagram doesn't offer a simple global switch for DM read receipts on most accounts. The workarounds are:

• Use Restrict on a specific account (Settings → Privacy → Restricted accounts), which hides your activity status and read receipts from them.
• Read messages from the notification preview or the message requests list without opening the chat.
• Turn off Activity Status (Settings → Privacy → Activity Status) so people can't see when you're online, though this is separate from read receipts.

Some business and professional accounts do have a read-receipt control, so check your message settings.

WhatsApp:

1. Open Settings → Privacy.
2. Scroll to Read receipts.
3. Toggle it off.

The catch: turning it off is reciprocal — you won't see other people's blue ticks either. It also does not apply to group chats, where read receipts always remain on, or to voice messages, whose ticks still turn blue.

Android (Google Messages):

1. Open Messages.
2. Tap your profile icon → Messages settings.
3. Tap RCS chats.
4. Toggle Send read receipts off.

This applies to RCS chats. Standard SMS has no read receipts. Samsung Messages has a similar option under Settings → Chat settings.

Facebook Messenger: there's no official way to disable read receipts. The only reliable approach is reading messages from notifications without opening the app.

Which apps actually have read receipts? A lot of searches are really asking whether the feature exists at all, particularly for dating apps:

So if you've been worrying that someone on Hinge, Bumble or Tinder can see you've read their message — they can't. Those apps don't have the feature.

What people see once you turn them off: the message status stops at Delivered. It doesn't hide the fact you received the message, and it doesn't make you invisible — it only removes the confirmation that you opened it.

Reading without triggering a receipt, if you'd rather not change the setting:

• Read the notification preview from the lock screen or banner.
• Use the notification centre to expand a message without opening the app.
• On iPhone, long-press the conversation in the list to peek at it.
• Enable Airplane mode, open and read, then close the app before reconnecting — though this is unreliable and the receipt often sends once you're back online.

Turning them back on is the same path in each app, switching the toggle the other way.