How to Turn Off iMessage Read Receipts on iPhone
About this QuickTip
In this video, I show you how to turn off read receipts in iMessage so people can’t see when you’ve read their messages. By changing one simple setting on your iPhone, you can keep your messages showing as “Delivered” instead of “Read”.
Transcript
Hi, it’s your friendly teacher, Jacob here, and in this short video, I’m going to show you how to turn off read receipts in iMessage.
So, all we’re going to do is jump into our Settings app, and we want to go into the Messages settings. You can either search for Messages at the bottom, or you can scroll right down and pick Apps.
When you’ve chosen Apps, simply jump to M on that sidebar there, and that will take you straight to Messages.
We’re nearly done already, but if this video is helpful, please do press that Like button.
Okay, on the Messages settings, we’re going to scroll about two-thirds of the way down that screen, and you’re going to see a toggle there for Read Receipts.
When I turn that off, no one’s going to know when I’ve read the message in the future. It will simply say Delivered. It won’t ever change to say Read.
And that’s it. Read receipts off.
Technical details: This QuickTip was recorded on an iPhone 17 Pro Max running iOS 26.4 in March 2026.
The content used in this video is intended for educational and informational purposes only. All rights to the images, music, clips, and other media used belong to their respective owners. I do not claim ownership over any third-party content used. This video has not been authorised, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and regions. iOS is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems Inc. Whilst I have done my best to list all applicable trademarks for this video, in the (hopefully unlikely) event that I have missed any you can find a full list of trademarks registered to Apple Inc. on their website. Finally, please note that whilst every effort has been made to ensure the information contained within this video was correct at time of publication, please be aware that as future updates and software changes occur some or all elements of this video may become outdated. I will endeavour to remove videos which are completely obsolete so as not to cause confusion!