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”.
Step by Step
Open the Settings app
All you need to do is jump into your Settings app.
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, jump to M on that sidebar and that will take you straight to Messages.
Turn off the Read Receipts toggle
Scroll about two-thirds of the way down the Messages settings and you're going to see a toggle there for Read Receipts. Turn that off.
Questions This Answers
How do I turn off read receipts in iMessage on iPhone?
Jump into your Settings app, go to Apps and then Messages, and turn off the toggle for Read Receipts. That's it, read receipts off.
Where is the Read Receipts setting on iPhone?
It's in the Messages settings. You can search for Messages at the bottom of Settings, or scroll down to Apps and jump to M, then scroll about two-thirds of the way down that screen.
What do people see if I turn off read receipts?
Your message will say Delivered. It won't ever change to say Read, so no one's going to know when you've read it.
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.
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