Disable & Enable read messages reports in iMessages.
iOS’s default messaging app, iMessages, occasionally prompts you to enable a feature called ‘Send Read Receipts’. Once enabled, the app will notify your contacts when you’ve read their messages. The feature was added to iOS for iPhone, iPad and iPod with iOS 5, and it could be easily disabled and once again enabled from the app settings.
You may have a valid reason to hate the read statuses, for example, like wanting to hide your online status from friends. Although it’s an optional feature, you can occasionally enable it from the pop-up window, and then completely forget that other people will be notified with a ‘Read’ stamp below their messages. They will be also notified if you read the message from the Lock screen using 3D Touch, without actually opening the app.
So, here is now you can disable or enable the Read receipts feature:
- Go to Settings
- Head to ‘Messages’.
- Find the ‘Send Read Receipts’ option and switch off the toggle.
Alternatively, you can turn on/off the feature only for certain contacts:
- Open the Mesaging app.
- Select a Conversation thread
- Tap on the ‘i’ button on the top right
- Toggle on/off ‘Send Read Receipts’.
Keep in mind that this option is only available for iMessages, and don’t work in SMS threads. If you turn off the receipts for all contacts from the main Settings menu, and then enable them again, the individual settings for any certain contact will be lost.