iOS 5 Tip: Enable iMessage’s Read Receipt Feature
October 12, 2011
iOS 5′s iMessage feature allows you to see whether the other person using an i-device (also with iOS 5) has received or even read your message. Heck, it even shows you whether the other person is typing!
However, the read / typing feature is turned off as default, and you’d only be able to see if your message was delivered.
To turn this feature on, simply go to Setting / Messages and turn on the “Send Read Receipts” option.
October 12, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Thanks I have not seen this before. Please view my blog for more iPhone and Technology news!
October 16, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Help! When I send an iMessage to someone I cannot tell if they have read my message. It only tells me that it has been “delivered”. I’ve tried with two different friends and they both have their “send read receipts” on; as do I. I have a 3GS… does this feature not work for them?
Thank you!
October 16, 2011 at 12:17 pm
That’s odd! Try with a friend who has a newer iPhone and see what happens? I haven’t heard of this problem before.
October 21, 2011 at 10:58 pm
Samantha I have the same problem, Ive turned on read receipts and my messages never change to read when people read them, its always stock in delivered, and people I talk they have turned on read receipts. By the way I have and ipod touch 4G.
October 21, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Have you tried rebooting? How about turning read back off then back on? This is very puzzling …
November 29, 2011 at 12:50 am
Me too!
iPod 4g rocks
November 29, 2011 at 7:48 am
IpodLover – make sure that each of your friends / family ALSO have iOS 5 as well as have iMessage’s read feature turned on. Must be a two-way street!
November 29, 2011 at 10:51 am
Proudgeek—-
Yes the person apparently has iOS 5 and it’s turned on. Mine is also
Perhaps I could try texting with you?
November 29, 2011 at 11:03 am
IpodLover — hmm, strange. Try restarting each of the iDevices involved? I would druther keep my personal contact info private ;)
November 29, 2011 at 11:18 am
How would you reboot iMessage?
November 29, 2011 at 11:21 am
Meant rebooting each iPod / iPhone themselves by holding down the power button till you get a message asking to confirm powering off the device. Then after it completely turns off, press the power button again till you see the Apple logo. But honestly, other than this (and making sure everyone has Read Receipt turned on), I don’t know why several commentators including you are having problems getting Read Receipt when iMessaging with other folks … Growl.
November 29, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Okay. I will try that
March 27, 2013 at 2:47 pm
Stop being a creeper! They will reply when they want to reply.
November 29, 2011 at 12:47 am
Hey.
Yes It should work. My friend has as 3GS and try rebooting and turning iMessage off. I am having the same problem with my iPod Touch 4G and I know it works!
Any help for my iPod touch?
February 18, 2012 at 3:06 am
The other persons iMessage Send Read Receipts has to be turned on also.
October 16, 2011 at 8:21 pm
I do not get read reciepts either and the setting is on
October 16, 2011 at 8:23 pm
Aidan – which iPhone do you have?
October 17, 2011 at 3:55 am
The read receipts option is for SMS; it has nothing to do with iMessages. There are many devices out there that support read receipts.
October 17, 2011 at 6:34 am
Ran – if “Read Receipt” is off, then people who use iMessage only see “delivered” and cannot see whether the other person is typing. With “Read Receipt” on, iMessage users can see “read” and whether other people are typing.
October 18, 2011 at 6:15 am
i have an iphone 4 and have ‘read receipts’ enabled however my iMessage only shows ‘delivered’ and never ‘read’. Have been iMessaging people and their phones show ‘read’.. anyone?
October 18, 2011 at 6:18 am
That’s strange. I have an iPhone 4 and this Read feature has worked for me and everyone else I’ve been iMessage’ing with. Perhaps reboot? Verify that the other person DOES have Read Receipt enabled?
October 18, 2011 at 6:47 am
The read receipt is for the other person to know that you have read their message; it will show up on their phone under the message where it typically said delivered. Apple is all about privacy so they must enable it for you to see their read receipt and for it to show up on your iMessage.
October 23, 2011 at 11:34 pm
ok so I am totally confused! Do I have to buy an iMessage app or what because I can not figure out for the life of me how to use this feature and my send receipt thing is on and I still cant see when people are typing me a message
October 24, 2011 at 8:10 am
Ashley – no, iMessage is built into your Messages app – the same one you use for sending SMS (text messages). If you have upgrade to iOS 5, then the Messages app will automatically detect if the person you’re messaging with is using iOS 5 too (after the first new message to that person). Then your subsequent messages will be automatically sent as iMessages – colored blue – and you’d be able to see if the message was delivered and read (if the other person has enabled read receipt too).
October 24, 2011 at 4:28 pm
I have an iPhone 4 and I have that issue with iMessage as well. I have rebooted the phone and still does it. Mine however works for some people. And I can see at all times if that person is typing regardless of whether or not I get a “read” notification or not. I only have one friend that the “read” works on and her settings are the same as everyone else’s. And everyone else also has an iPhone 4.
October 25, 2011 at 3:41 pm
Hey guys I downloaded the new software today and the imessaging isn’t working as it should be. Like the messages arent blue, the send receipts dont work at all and my gf cnt see wen her texts to me hav been delivered n read etc. But it works fine for her with two other people n one has an iphone 4 like me.
Any suggestions on wat i could do?
October 28, 2011 at 12:53 pm
hah. grant, did your girlfriend take over typing for you mid-message? you suddenly started writing like a 14 year old girl.
October 31, 2011 at 10:48 pm
What constitutes a read message? Do you actually have to open the text or does reading it in the preview and then closing also count as read since you can technically see the message?
November 1, 2011 at 9:47 am
Lenni – reading it in the Notifications preview does NOT make this a “Read” message. You have to actually open the Messages app and view this message (or its thread) to mark it as “Read” (send a Read Receipt).
November 3, 2011 at 11:42 am
You’re all getting this backwards. Enabling read reciepts does NOT inform you when other people have read your message, it informs other people when you have read theirs.
If you want to get the “read” notifications yourself, you’ll need to ask other people to enable the feature on their phones.
November 29, 2011 at 12:42 am
I have iPod touch 4g and iOS 5 installed.
I am texting friends/family and it doesn’t show
“read” I turned on send read receipts on and
I can see the person typing. Only once, I have seen the “read” sign.
Does it not work on iPod touch?
I tried rebooting it and still didn’t work.
Thank You!!! ;-)
January 14, 2012 at 5:14 am
Is there a way to check if my message has been read even if the other person doesn’t have send receipts enabled? Having a fight and I am not in a position to ask her to enable it, but I would like to see when she read my message. Is there any hack or trick to it? I apologize if my question comes off as strange.
January 14, 2012 at 8:22 am
Sorry to hear about the fight :( None that I know of, even on jailbroken devices. You might be able to see “…” though. The other alternative is to switch (and convince the other person to do so too) to a different messaging app that has read receipt built in too.
January 14, 2012 at 8:47 am
Does this future cost say if your on contract. Because SMS read receipts cost for me so does this iMessage feature cost?
Thanks
January 14, 2012 at 9:08 am
No charge for using iMessage, since it uses data and not SMS.
February 5, 2012 at 8:41 pm
Hi I was messaging someone on iMessage and then they said that they can see my conversation with a friend, is this possible?
February 6, 2012 at 7:57 am
Kate – not possible, unless you’re group messaging. If you were, you’d have seen “2 recipients” (or more) in the To: field at the top of the iMessage conversation.
March 18, 2012 at 3:18 pm
so you have to have io5 to download imessage
April 5, 2012 at 10:56 am
Im not sure how so many people can be so stupid, the setting in messages Is to allow the other person to see if YOU have read their message, not for you to see if a message sent has been read, this would require the person YOU are sending too to have this option set to on, most people prefer this set off as it’s a privacy thing, if your worried people are ignoring your messages they probably are, and if your the sort of person who gets hung up on whether your messages are being read or not then your being ignored with good reason…..get a life.
December 13, 2012 at 1:31 am
Bahahaha I agree. Freakin idiots!!
May 20, 2013 at 8:59 pm
Hi
This is not the case.
Me and my friend have the setting switched on, and still only shows “delivered” and not “read”
We both have iphone 5′s and up to date software. So get your facts straight before you make such comments.
April 5, 2012 at 11:44 am
how does that work because the beneath the send read receipts is says “allow others to be notified when you have read their messages”, so wouldn’t the person you are texting get the notification? and does it still work even if the person your texting didn’t activate it?
April 26, 2012 at 5:19 pm
no the other person see’s when u heve read there message, if you want to see when they have read urs they have to enable it
May 25, 2012 at 8:16 am
befor you send message press star 0 hash then writ message and send you should get message back when opened
June 19, 2012 at 1:04 pm
I did that & still certain iPhone contacts in my phone aren’t being shown as read.what do I do?Odd cause I have a iPhone 4s & so does the people I’m texting so I’m confused.
June 19, 2012 at 1:07 pm
Kimberly – don’t forget that BOTH you and your contacts must have this Read Receipt enabled in BOTH iPhones’ settings. Not just yourself. Hope this helps.
June 21, 2012 at 3:02 pm
I have a situation where there person I am texting shows they’ve read my texts but they say they haven’t. Has this glitch happened with anyone else or are they just lying to me?
July 1, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Ok so both read receipts is on and I still can’t tell if they read my message . Is something wrong with my phone ?
July 1, 2012 at 8:12 pm
Try restarting both users’ iPhones?
July 6, 2012 at 9:52 am
I have turned all the stuff on it says to, to be able to see when people read my messages. I have an iphone 3gs But it’s only worked with one of my contacts that ive sent a message to and she has a iPhone 4s. Why is it not working with everyone?
July 6, 2012 at 9:57 am
Possibly because THEY haven’t turned on read receipt on THEIR iPhones?
July 18, 2012 at 1:12 pm
you do understand that the read receipt feature is for when someone else sends YOU a text and you read it, it shows THEM that YOU read THEIR text. Not you sending a text and then showing that THEY read your text. That would be total invasion of privacy.
July 25, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Sorry if this is a double entry but my last entry seemed to have been deleted…
Anyway, both my boyfriend and I have iPhones. Our blue messages back and forth suggest to me that we both have the updated iMessage app (I know for sure I do, not sure about him). Whenever we send messages back and forth I can always see the typing ellipses when he is in the process of writing me a message and the “sent” message underneath messages I have just sent him, but I’ve never seen the word “read” underneath any the messages I’ve sent him. I would assume he doesn’t have that function enabled, but then I always know when he is typing me a message and I thought that was something I’d only be able to see if he enabled the app for read receipts…is there something wrong with my phone that I cannot see “read” under my messages? If not, then how am I supposed to tell the difference between when something was sent and when something was actually opened and read?
Thank you!!
July 25, 2012 at 6:52 pm
Don’t forget to enable Read Receipt on BOTH iPhones. If you enable Read Receipt on yours, your boyfriend will be able to see “read” on HIS iPhone when you read his messages. Make sure he enables it on his iPhone too so you can see “read” on YOUR iPhone when he reads your messages.
July 25, 2012 at 7:19 pm
Hey, thanks so much for getting back to me! I just enabled the feature on my phone today, but even before that I was able to see when he was typing so it makes me feel like he probably has that feature enabled on his phone but I haven’t ever asked him about it for sure.
I’m just curious because I can see went something was sent to him, I can see when he is typing, but I never see the words “read” under anything I’ve sent to him. Seems strange to me…
August 26, 2012 at 10:00 pm
Is there an additional charge added to my monthly bill for enabling this feature?
August 26, 2012 at 10:04 pm
No additional charge, Jade. :)
September 4, 2012 at 9:23 am
Is there a way I can see the time instead of dates on my read receipts?
September 4, 2012 at 9:24 am
Not really, unless it was a few moments ago. :(
September 10, 2012 at 3:42 am
I do have a question about something like this (could be the same thing). I’ve never had “Send Read Receipt” but some people that send me an iMessage it shows at the bottom of my message I send back either “delivered” when I send it “read and time” when they read it and then the (…) when their replying. Everyone I’ve asked about that has told me they don’t know how that even happened or why it shows up. Why is that? It only shows up for some people, not others.
September 10, 2012 at 8:09 am
Yep, the same thing. Looks like one of you has enabled read receipt, but not the other person. Or maybe even neither of you. Even if both of you have not enabled read receipt, you’d still see “delivered” and “…”. Keep in mind that this only shows up if both of you are using iPhones / iPads / iPods / updated Macs.
October 4, 2012 at 9:20 pm
I have a question
I have now iPhone 5 had 4AM before I’m
Told by my friends that when I’m
Not answering their txt msg right away they r getting msg from me saying that I can’t replay now will do later
How do I turn that off
October 4, 2012 at 9:26 pm
Sounds like a Do Not Disturb setting. But the only “Reply with Message” is under Settings / Phone – and not under Settings / Messages. Strange!
October 4, 2012 at 10:38 pm
yes I’m told it’s been for over a year now nobody told me before:)
October 4, 2012 at 10:43 pm
will check
yes I know it hapend over a year now it’s been sending msg on and off
October 5, 2012 at 5:55 am
Maybe it’s a setting on your telephone carrier (Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint), not on the iPhone? Try going to your carrier’s store like the Verizon store and ask.
October 5, 2012 at 8:47 am
Thank you I ll try that :)
October 5, 2012 at 3:56 pm
yes it’s set up with provider but I can control it know how now, thanks a lot!!!
October 5, 2012 at 3:59 pm
Hooray! And good to know.
October 5, 2012 at 4:51 pm
thanks again :)
October 10, 2012 at 10:58 pm
Okay I done this but now my iPod touch it doesn’t shows the other person that read my message it only says delivered and I have it set up what should I do ?
October 11, 2012 at 4:00 am
Juan – make sure the other person also turns on Read Receipt on his or her iPod too.
October 19, 2012 at 10:30 pm
I have an iPhone for some reason i can send picture messages to some people but not everyone. I used to be able to send picture messages to them but now I can’t one has an iPhone and one has a phone thru metro pcs and one thru tmobile.
October 20, 2012 at 8:13 am
Go to the Settings app, tap Messages, and make sure MMS messaging is ON.
If that doesn’t work, you may need to go in your network’s store (like Verizon or Sprint) and talk with a rep to make sure your messaging plan correctly includes pictures.
October 20, 2012 at 9:02 am
Okay thanks lots :0)
October 23, 2012 at 12:17 am
my imessage isn’t working, but my settings for imessage doesn’t look likethat. It only has the options for SMS/mms :/
October 23, 2012 at 6:25 pm
Are you using iOS 5 or higher? Make sure you have iMessage enabled in Settings. If not, better visit your local phone or Apple store.
December 6, 2012 at 9:55 am
Sir,
I just received the following email:
“Dear m****,
Your Apple ID (m****@me.com) was used to sign in to iMessage on an iPhone 4S named “W****’s iPhone”.
May I assume from this that “W****” has decided that she want’s to view my text msgs to folks other than her? And if so, and if she un-checks “Send Read Receipts”, I will have no way of knowing when this occurs, right?
And will there be a log somewhere, on her phone or mine, when this happens?
Thank you,
M
December 6, 2012 at 10:01 am
Good question! She’d be able to read all of your new imessage (not text) messages to/from your recipients. I’d think she’d be able to turn off read receipt, altho iMessages would still show as delivered. You wouldn’t know whether she read them or not. Don’t know what you mean by log, but your iMessages would certainly be listed on hers. Or if you meant a log of who is getting your iMessages – I seriously doubt you’d be able to get it from Apple.
If you want to prevent her from getting your iMessages, change your Apple ID password. That’d force everything to ask for the new password once again.
December 6, 2012 at 10:01 am
In addition I received a popup on my MacBook:
EMAIL ADDRESS ADDED TO W****’S iPHONE
“W****’s iPhone is now using ‘M****@me.com’ for iMessgaes.”
This is another verification that she has decided to read my texts, right?
December 6, 2012 at 10:02 am
Yep, she’s reading your iMessages. (She won’t be able to read your non-iMessage text messages.)
December 6, 2012 at 10:22 am
Not sure what “non-iMessage texts” are. Some other app (way) of texting? I have nothing to hide, so I’m not about to set up another system, but I do think I’ll let her swing out there in the breeze for a while before I mention it.
Thanks for your help.
December 6, 2012 at 10:29 am
You might’ve noticed that some text messages are blue, while others are green. If they’re blue, they’re being sent as iMessages to other Apple devices (iPads, iPods, Macs, iPhones). If they’re green, they’re being sent as SMS text messages to non-Apple phones (your technologically challenged mom’s cell phone, perhaps?).
Green text messages are being sent using your carrier (Verizon, Sprint etc)’s voice cellular plans. That’s why you pay extra for text services. iMessages, in contrast, are being sent via data via Apple’s servers and don’t count as a text message. Yes, from the same app (Messages).
If messages are being sent as iMessages, Apple makes it easy to see copies on other iDevices – like what your “she” is doing. But if they’re being sent as “green” SMS text messages, Apple is unable to provider copies of them on other Apple devices.
Related note: if all of your text messages are being sent as iMessages (like mine), it might be worth it to remove unlimited texting from your cellular plan. Saves you $10 a month or so.
December 6, 2012 at 10:27 am
And there won’t be a log anywhere either, right?
December 6, 2012 at 10:32 am
(Sorry, replied to your last comment before approving it. hope they show up in the right order.) Regarding the log: good question. I wonder if our Apple ID online account gives us info on the various devices it is being used on. RESEARCH TIME!
December 6, 2012 at 10:39 am
Apparently you can see a list of devices being associated with your Apple ID via your iTunes’s Account Info page on your computer. I don’t have my iTunes handy, so I don’t know if this works when it’s being associated only with iMessages rather than an entire device. Give that a try.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4627
December 6, 2012 at 11:00 am
Thank you again.
Regards,
M
February 2, 2013 at 6:34 pm
I send imessages to a number constantly and i always get a delivered and read time. However the person tells me they havent read the message yet. Now is that possible of this person is just lying.
February 2, 2013 at 6:49 pm
Hmmm. Maybe it’s being sent to more than one iDevice, and is being marked as read when opened on the other iDevice? Or perhaps he’s indeed just lying.
March 8, 2013 at 7:23 pm
If you have it enabled, it’s only for OTHERS to see when you’ve read their messages. Enabling the feature does NOT mean you’ll be able to see “Read #:## PM” on everyone who messsages you. You will only ever SEE the “read” message if the person you are talking to via iMessage has it enabled. Enabling it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to see when everyone reads your messages. Only if THEY have it enabled will you see it.
March 15, 2013 at 2:13 pm
Question…if I have turned off my send read receipts my phone still shows when the other person has read the text message. Does that mean they can see the same on their iPhone even though I’ve disabled it
March 15, 2013 at 6:10 pm
Mel — No. If you disabled Read Receipt on your iPhone, OTHERS won’t know if you have read their messages or not.
You can still see whether someone else has read his/her message, if that person has enabled Read Receipt on that person’s iDevice.
May 4, 2013 at 9:03 am
What if you have parental controls? I have the read receipts but now I don’t want them!
May 4, 2013 at 9:04 am
HW – if you don’t want “read”, just slide Read Receipts off in iMessage’s settings.