How to Enable & Disable Read Receipts for iMessages

You have accidently turned on “Read Receipts” for iMessages, but now don’t want anyone to know that you have actually read their incoming messages. Is there a way to disable it? If yes, how to do that? Also is it possible to make choice as to which contacts should be notified and which shouldn’t? The answer to all your questions is, Yes.
Red Receipt is an old feature which you might not have noticed. It has an opt-in setting. Usually, you are prompted time to time to turn it on. When in hurry we don’t pay attention to such messages and tend to click on Allow.

Once we do so, every time we read somebody’s iMessage in the Messages app, they receive a “Read” notification.

Those who give importance to privacy, would want to disable/ opt out of it sooner than later.

In this article, we will let you know how to do disable it completely and for selected messages.

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How to Opt In/Out of Read Receipts for All iMessages

Enabling or disabling this option is not at all difficult. You just have to follow few simple steps and all will be set the way you want.
Just go to “Messages” in your Settings app, then toggle on or off “Send Read Receipts.”

If the option is missing, it may be a possibility that you don’t have “iMessage” turned on and you are messaging with SMS instead. If that is the case there is nothing to worry about as no read receipts will be sent in this case.

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How to Enable/Disable Read Receipts Individually

Wasn’t it really easy to turn on and off Read Receipts? I suppose it has been the easiest way to do. But if I want to turn it off for few selected contacts then? Worry not iOS 10 has this option for you which lets you turn Read Receipts on or off on a case-by-case basis.
You can turn it on or off completely using the steps mentioned above and customize it using the steps mentioned below:
To do this, in the Messages app, select a conversation thread, then tap on the “i” (info) button in the top right.

Next, toggle on “Send Read Receipts” and hit “Done.”

If you don’t see this option, then the reason is that it’s an SMS thread, not an iMessage thread, or it’s a group chat, which also doesn’t support Read Receipts.
Note: If you turn on Read Receipts for selected contacts, you need to go into your main Messages settings and toggle “Send Read Receipts” on for everybody, then turn it off again, Messages won’t remember your individual contact settings, so you’ll have to redo them all.
Likewise, if you’ve turned off individual contacts when the main setting is on, then go back and turn off Read Receipts for everyone and turn it back on, it won’t remember individuals you wanted it off for.
Also, if you read the iMessage on a lock screen preview in your Notification view the sender won’t get a “Read” stamp. However, if you use 3D Touch to expand the messages, then they will know that you’ve read it.

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This trick will help you turn off the feature if you have accidently turn it on. Also this way you can easily customize the list of people you want to share information or not. Try it if privacy is of utmost importance to you.