How to disable read receipts on the most popular messaging apps
Ignorance is bliss. Responsibility is not. If you’re the type of person who likes to take their time responding to messages, you don’t want the pressure of reading receipts to weigh on your head.
Read receipts are an integral part of every popular email platform. When you (or someone else) reads a message, you get that double tick or timestamp. It is good to know that the message has been delivered and read. But what if you’re on the other side?
You can get out of this game by disabling read receipts on all popular email services. We’ll walk you through the steps below.
To note: Disabling read receipts works both ways. Once disabled, you often won’t be able to see when your messages are delivered and read either.
Let’s start with the most popular messaging platform on the planet: Go to Settings > Account > Private life and disable”Read receipts.”
iMessage
On your iPhone, you can turn off read receipts for iMessage from the Settings app. Go to Settings > posts and disable the “Read receipts” option.
Google Mail
On the Android side, the steps are slightly different. Open the Google Messenger app on your Android smartphone, then tap on the three dots Menu button at the top right. Go to Settings > Chat Features and disable the “Send read receipts” option.
LinkedIn lets you disable both read receipts and typing indicator, tAlthough the steps are different for website and mobile apps.
On the website, click on your Profile icon and go to Settings and Privacy. Go to Communication > Messaging experience and click the “Change” beside the Read receipts and keystroke indicators option. Here you can disable the feature.
On the mobile app, go to Profile > Settings > Communication > Messaging experience > Read receipts and keystroke indicators, and disable the feature.
Signal
In the Signal app, tap your Profile icon go to Settings > Private life and disable the “Read receipts” option.
Microsoft Teams
Want to prevent your colleagues from knowing the exact second you read a message in the Microsoft Teams app? Click on your Profile toolbar icon and go to “Settings.” From “Private life“, disable the section “Read receipts” characteristic.
What if there is no option to turn off read receipts? (Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Telegram)
Not all popular messaging apps support this feature. Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram don’t give you the option to turn off read receipts.
But there is a workaround you can use to read the messages without alerting the sender: by using airplane mode. Enable airplane mode on your device, then open the app and read the message. While you’re in airplane mode, the person won’t know you read it.