How to Turn Read Receipts On or Off on iPhone

To stop people from seeing Read under their iMessages, open Settings > Apps > Messages and turn off Send Read Receipts. You can also set it for one person: open their conversation, tap their name at the top, and change Send Read Receipts there. That per-person setting overrides the main switch.

These steps match iOS 27 and follow Apple’s read receipts guide. They also work on iOS 26 and iOS 18. On iOS 17 and earlier, Messages is directly in the main Settings list, not under Apps. The setting only controls what you send. It can’t make someone else send receipts to you.

What Read Receipts Do

A read receipt is the small Read label, with a time, that appears under the last message you sent once the other person opens it. When receipts are off on their end, you only see Delivered.

• Your setting controls what other people see when you open their messages.
• Their setting controls what you see when they open yours.
• Turning yours off does not stop you from seeing Read on messages you send to people who still have receipts on.

Turn Read Receipts Off for Your Conversations

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Apps, then tap Messages. On iOS 17 and earlier, tap Messages in the main Settings list.
3. Turn off Send Read Receipts. The switch turns gray.

4. Leave Settings. The change takes effect right away, with no restart. From now on, people who message you see Delivered instead of Read after you open their messages, unless you set a different choice for that conversation.

Turning this off does not delete messages, turn off notifications, or hide the Delivered label. It also cannot take back a Read receipt that was already sent.

If you already opened a text and want a reminder to answer it, you can mark the conversation as unread. The sender still sees Read, but the blue dot comes back on your iPhone.

Turn Read Receipts On for Everyone

1. Open Settings, tap Apps, then tap Messages.
2. Turn on Send Read Receipts. The switch turns green.

People who message you will see Read after you open their iMessages. Conversations where you already changed the setting by hand keep their own choice, so change those separately.

Change the Setting for One Person

1. Open Messages and tap the conversation with that person.
2. Tap the person’s name or icon at the top. The conversation details panel opens.
3. Find Send Read Receipts and turn it on or off. The change applies only to what that person sees when you read their messages.

4. Return to the conversation. To test the result, have the person send a new message after the change rather than relying on an old message that was already marked Read.

A conversation follows the main switch until you change it here. After that, its own choice sticks even if you flip the main switch later.

Common Setups

What you want	Main switch	Per-person switch
Nobody sees Read	Off	Leave as is, or turn off any conversation you turned on earlier
Everybody sees Read	On	Check conversations you turned off earlier
Only family or a partner sees Read	Off	On for those conversations
Everyone except one person sees Read	On	Off for that conversation

Turn Read Receipts On or Off on a Mac or iPad

If you read messages on other Apple devices, check the setting there too.

• Mac: Open Messages, choose Messages > Settings in the menu bar, click iMessage, click Settings, then select or deselect Send read receipts. For one person, select the conversation, click the contact at the top, and change Send Read Receipts. Apple’s Mac read receipts guide has the same steps.
• iPad: Use the same steps as on iPhone: Settings > Apps > Messages > Send Read Receipts.

Understand What the Labels Mean

Delivered means the message reached the recipient’s device or account; it does not mean the recipient opened it. Read means the recipient opened the message while sending read receipts for that conversation. A missing Read label is therefore not proof that the person ignored the message. Their setting may be off, or the message may not have been opened.

If you want to show you’ve seen a text without writing a reply, you can like a message on iPhone with a Tapback instead.

Read receipts work in iMessage chats (blue bubbles) and in RCS chats with Android users when both phones and carriers support RCS. Apple says RCS needs iOS 18 or later and a supporting carrier, and it supports read receipts and typing indicators. You can check it in Settings > Apps > Messages > RCS Messaging; see Apple’s RCS messaging article.

SMS and MMS texts, which are also green, never show Read. This setting only covers Apple’s Messages app; WhatsApp, Signal, and other apps have their own read receipt controls.

For a closer look at delivery confirmations, read this guide to what Delivered means on iPhone. It distinguishes iMessage, RCS, and SMS/MMS and explains what a receipt can tell you.

If Turning the Switch Off Seems Not to Work

• One person still sees Read. Open that conversation, tap the contact at the top, and check its Send Read Receipts switch. A per-person setting overrides the main one.
• Read appears after you read on another device. Check the setting in Messages on your Mac or iPad as described above.
• An old message still says Read. A receipt that was already sent won’t disappear. Test with a new message.
• You can’t find Messages. Use the search field at the top of Settings and type Messages.
• Send Read Receipts is missing. Make sure iMessage is turned on in Settings > Apps > Messages. The read receipt options belong to iMessage and RCS conversations.

Don’t turn off iMessage to hide read receipts, because that changes how your messages are delivered and can send them as SMS texts instead.

Frequently Asked Questions