by The read receipts feature of iMessage is a great way to notify recipients that they have viewed a message. However, it’s also a nuisance.
If you’re sick of seeing that time-stamped Read receipt under a message, it’s easy to turn off the feature on your iPhone. Follow the steps below to disable them on a per-message basis in iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
1. Open Messages
If you’ve ever been annoyed by a read receipt on an iPhone, there’s an easy way to turn it off. That’s because the feature is actually a bit of an invasion of privacy, especially if you don’t want the person who sent you a message to know that you’ve seen their text.
The good news is that there are two ways to disable the feature: either by disabling it for everyone or for a specific contact. If you’re only ever going to use the feature for certain contacts, here’s how you can do that:
Firstly, you’ll need to open up a conversation with the person you don’t want to see a read receipt for. That could be a friend or family member, depending on your preference.
Once you’ve found the contact, tap on their profile portrait at the top of the screen to open up their iMessage thread. From here, you can enable or disable the send read receipts option for them by tapping the Info button in the top-right corner of their message.
However, keep in mind that the read receipt feature only works with iMessages, so you won’t be able to disable it for texts sent through SMS (short message service) messaging. Also, group chats won’t support read receipts.
To disable the feature for all of your contacts, head to Settings and scroll down to Messages. You’ll see a green toggle next to “Send Read Receipts.” Simply flip it off and your contacts will no longer be able to see if you’ve read their messages.
2. Tap on a contact
The iPhone’s Messages app has a feature that lets people know when you’ve read their messages. This is called iMessage read receipts and can be a useful tool for some people, but others may not like it or find it annoying.
If you’re one of these users, iOS gives you the option to turn off read receipts for individual contacts. This is a great way to protect your privacy when you aren’t ready to respond right away.
To disable read receipts for a contact, tap on their name in the Messages app. Then, go to their Info page and toggle the Send Read Receipts button on or off. If you want to disable them for all your contacts, you’ll have to do it on a case-by-case basis.
You can also block a person’s phone number from sending you texts, emails and other notifications without them knowing. You can do this by opening a conversation and tapping their name at the top of the screen, then tapping the info button and choosing the Block this Caller option.
Once you’ve blocked the phone number from sending you messages, you’ll be able to ignore their calls and alerts in the Messages app. This is especially useful if you have Do Not Disturb turned on in Settings.
3. Tap on Info
The iMessage feature of iPhones that shows when a message is delivered and read is useful, but it can also be annoying. If you don’t like being distracted by the timestamp in a text, or if you don’t want to be reminded when someone messages you, it’s easy to turn off iMessage read receipts on your device.
If you want to disable read receipts, tap on Info in the Messages app. If the toggle for send read receipts is green, you can switch it off.
Unlike a text message that disappears after you read it, the Read Receipt appears on the screen as a small notification. This is a tiny packet of data that Apple sends to the other end of the message, letting them know when you opened it.
To turn off read receipts for a specific contact, open the Messages app on your iPhone. Select the conversation with the contact that you want to disable read receipts for, and tap their profile icon.
You’ll see a menu below the person’s name with two sets of options. The first set will have a switch that you can slide to off position, turning off the ability to send read receipts for this contact.
The second set will have a button that you can tap to enable send receipts for this contact. The switch will be white when you enable it, and your iPhone will begin sending read receipts for this contact.
If you want to turn off read receipts for all your contacts, you can do so in Settings. Simply tap the Messages option in Settings, and then scroll down and check or uncheck the Send Read Receipts box.
4. Tap on Send Read Receipts
If you don’t want people to know that you read their messages, you can turn off the feature that shows them when you’ve done so. This is known as read receipts and it’s available on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
In Messages on an iPhone, you can tap on a contact to open their conversation and then tap the profile portrait in the upper right-hand corner. Swipe down to find the Send Read Receipts button, and toggle it on or off as per your preference.
On an iPad, you can also swipe down on a conversation and tap the i info button to toggle on or off this feature. You can also disable this feature on a macOS computer by opening Messages and selecting the appropriate conversation.
You can also control read receipts on a person-by-person basis. iOS 10 and later lets you turn off and on this feature for a particular contact, and this works both on iPhones and iPads.
To turn off this feature, go to Settings and then Messages. From there, move the Send Read Receipts switch to off by tapping on it and then again by tapping on the three vertical dots menu icon and tapping on the toggle to the right of it. If the slider is green, you’ve turned off read receipts on that contact and can now open a message with them without anyone knowing that you’ve read it.
