How To Turn Off Read Receipts In Some Popular Communication Apps

If you don’t want people sending you messages to know if you’ve read their messages, you can turn off read receipts for various communication apps on your phone. Then your phone will not send receipts that the sender knows that his messages have been viewed.

In most applications, the read receipt system is two-way, that is, if you turn off the sending of read receipts, you will not be able to receive read receipts either.

How to turn off read receipts in WhatsApp

Turning off read receipts on WhatsApp is pretty easy. Here’s how to do it in the Android version of the app.

As of this writing, you cannot turn off read receipts for WhatsApp groups

1. Launch WhatsApp, click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select “Settings”.

2. On the next screen, click “Account”.

3. Tap the “Privacy” option.

4. You will find the Read Receipts parameter. Set the switch next to it to OFF.

How to turn off read receipts in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams works the same way as WhatsApp, and lets you either block incoming and outgoing read receipts or not block anything.

1. Launch the Microsoft Teams app on your phone.
2. Click on the hamburger icon in the upper left corner and select “Settings”.

3. Click on the “Messages” option on the next screen.

4. On the next screen, you will find two options. Disable the Read Receipts option to disable read receipts.

How to turn off read receipts in Twitter

Twitter has an option to turn off read receipts for direct messages you send to and receive from users on your site.

1. Open the Twitter app on your phone.
2. Tap your profile icon in the upper left corner, scroll down and select the Settings & Privacy option.

3. Select “Privacy & Security” in the first section of the next screen.

4. Click on the Direct Messages option to view the message settings.

5. Disable the Show Read Receipts option.

How to turn off read receipts in Viber

When it comes to privacy, Viber offers many features that you can turn on and off for your account. It also has a read receipts option, but it doesn’t call it that. This is called “viewing status” and you can turn it on or off as you see fit.

1. Launch the Viber app on your device.
2. Click on “More” below. screen to view additional options.

3. Select “Settings” to open the settings menu.

4. Select “Privacy” on the next screen to access your privacy settings.

5. You will find the “Submit” option with “Viewed” status. Disable this setting and your read reports will be disabled.

How to turn off read receipts in Skype

Skype allows you to turn off read receipts in two ways. You can change your current status to invisible and no read receipts will be sent, or you can turn off the actual option for notifications.

Disable Skype read receipts by changing status

1. Start Skype on your phone.
2. Click on your profile icon at the top.

3. Click on your current status to change it.

4. Select “Invisible” as the new status.

Turn off Skype read receipts by turning off the read receipts option

1. Start Skype and click your profile icon at the top.

2. Select the Settings option.

3. Click on the Messages option.

4. Disable the Read Receipts option.

How to turn off read receipts in Google Hangouts

When you turn off read receipts for Google Hangouts on your smartphone, the setting syncs across all your devices. As a result, there is no need to disable the read receipts option on each device separately.

1. Open the Hangouts app on your smartphone.
2. Click on the hamburger icon in the upper left corner and select “Settings”.

3. Click on your Google account in the Account section.

4. Select the Share My Status option to view your status sharing settings.

5. You will see the Last Seen option. Turn it off and you won’t send read receipts.

How to turn off read receipts in Outlook

There is currently no way to turn off read receipts in the Outlook mobile app. However, you can use the option in its web version to prevent your phone from sending read receipts.

1. Go to the web version of Outlook and sign in to your account.
2. Click the settings icon in the upper right corner of the screen and select View All Outlook Options.

3. Select the General option in the left sidebar.

4. Select Mobile Devices from the expanded menu.

5. In the right sidebar, there is a check box next to Do not send read receipts for messages read on devices using Exchange ActiveSync. Check this box.

How to turn off read receipts for iMessage

Apple iMessage also gives you the option to turn read receipts on or off for your conversations. You can turn it off in the Settings app if you no longer want your friends to know that you have read their messages.

1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and click on the Messages option. The iMessage settings menu will open.

3. Disable the Send Read Receipts option.

How to turn off read receipts in Facebook Messenger

There are several Facebook-owned platforms that don’t offer the option to turn off read receipts, and Facebook Messenger is one of them. You can’t prevent people from knowing if you’ve read their Facebook Messenger messages on their devices.

However, there is a little trick that allows you to “turn off” read receipts, at least for a while, in the Messenger app on your phone.

1. Pull down the notification bar on your phone and rotate in airplane mode.

2. Start the Facebook Messenger app and open the messages you want to read without sending a read receipt.
3. Close the application completely after reading the messages.
4. Disable airplane mode.

Do you prefer your communications apps to send and receive read receipts? Or do you usually prefer to turn off read receipts? Let us know in the comments below.

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