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Turning off read receipts should turn off both sending and receiving.

  • Yes

    Votes: 5 22.7%
  • No

    Votes: 17 77.3%

  • Total voters
    22

j_wong59

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 7, 2017
20
21
Is it just me who find it weird that turning off read receipts only stops you from sending them but not receiving them...? The whole point of turning them off is so I don’t see them at all? WhatsApp, for example, stops you from sending and receiving once it’s turned off...
 
Read Receipts is an old email construct. You read the email (in this case Message) but don't want the sender to know.

This option (from email angle) has been a godsend: I've known folks that are obsessive re: knowing if you've read their email or not. Bonus this feature on messages.

With Apple ecosystem, blocking stops the receiving. Or remove them from Contacts: messages go to Unknown category and does not ping you.
 
Last edited:
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Personnally I only turn on read receipts with my close friends and family and they also turn on read receipts for me as well. I found this useful when you only want to know if the person read your messages and don't necessarily need to reply. Also, its just a way to let them know you read their messages.

but for normal people, I always disable this because I don't think they need to know when I read their messages or not and then they're not happy because I dont reply to them quick enough.
 
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I only have read receipts for my wife. She's mature enough and knows me well enough that if i don't reply it's because i'm working/can't.

Others though seem to expect an immediate response.

Same with emails, i've even had people ring me to tell me they've sent me an email immediately on clicking send! They then expect an answer to which i have to reply "let me read the f***ing thing first!"

It got so bad at one point i had to put in my signature block the following 3 points:

1 - If you send me an email or text/iMessage then it's not important or an emergency. I will respond within 48hrs
2 - Just because something is important/emergency/priority for you doesn't automatically make it the same for me
3 - Your bad planning doesn't create an emergency or priority for me.

Took about a month or so but people soon learned.
 
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Is it just me who find it weird that turning off read receipts only stops you from sending them but not receiving them...? The whole point of turning them off is so I don’t see them at all? WhatsApp, for example, stops you from sending and receiving once it’s turned off...
Seems like some people might certainly not want to send read receipts in general or for some/most people for one reason or another, but seems like seeing them from other people isn't something that most people would really be concerned about (and there would likely be more people concerned that someone else might have them disabled rather than the other way around). Potentially that's the logic that was used when it came to this feature. Curious, is there any particular reasoning for not wanting to see them (vs. just basically ignoring that aspect of it if one doesn't really care one way or another)?
 
I'm not sure this is practical. I don't think it makes sense for you to control whether or not the person you're texting gets to send read receipts.
 
Maybe I am old, but I keep read receipts on for everyone. I find that it is no different from old email systems when one could see if the message was read and by whom by reading the properties of the sent message.
 
Maybe I am old, but I keep read receipts on for everyone. I find that it is no different from old email systems when one could see if the message was read and by whom by reading the properties of the sent message.

I do, too... I’ve never even thought to turn them off. They seem useful enough, in both directions; though I can see how some might prefer not to reveal when a message has been read, at least with certain contacts.

As a side note, I sometimes wonder why a message I send to friends to conclude an iMessage convo will just say “Delivered” and never “Read”... Do they never click back into the thread to “clear” the notification? So they have a constant “unread” badge (of whatever numeral) on their Messages app? Or do they just delete the thread without clicking into the final message (once they read it via the notification); and every time I text them, I’m starting a new thread on their phone(?) I guess I could ask them, but it’s not my business to micromanage their phone, haha.
 
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