Read receipts are very convenient if you’re sending a text to someone else. They let you know the recipient of a message has received and opened it. But if you’re the recipient, it can feel a little invasive knowing others can track whether you’ve read their messages. In this article, we show you how keep things a little more private by disabling read receipts on your phone.

Traditional SMS doesn’t support read receipts for messages. However, most modern SMS messenger apps now default to the newer Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol, which works between newer Apple and Android devices and allows for much richer message content (such as multimedia messages, group chats, and read receipts). Third party apps use their own protocols.

How to turn off read receipts on iPhone

On an iPhone, the Messages app supports traditional SMS, RCS (on newer phones), and its own messaging protocol, iMessage. To turn read receipts off for all messages:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Go to Apps → Messages.
  3. Scroll to Send Read Receipts and toggle the switch off.
Read receipts iPhone Messages 1

For iMessage contacts (denoted by a blue bubble icon), you can also turn of read receipts for individual contacts. To do this:

  1. Open a text thread from an iMessage contact.
  2. Tap on the contact’s profile picture at the top of the screen.
  3. Scroll to the Send Read Receipts option and toggle it off.
Read receipts iPhone Messages 2

How to turn off read receipts on Google Messages

Google Messages is the default SMS and RCS messenger app on most non-Samsung Android phones (and comes preinstalled even on Samsung phones). To turn off RCS read receipts:

  1. Open the Google Messenger app.
  2. Tap on your profile picture (top right).
  3. Go to Message settings → RCS Chats and toggle the Send read receipts switch off.
Read receipt Google Messages

How to turn off read receipts on Samsung Messenger

Samsung Messenger is the default SMS and RCS messenger app on Samsung phones. To turn off RCS read receipts:

  1. Open the Samsung Messenger app.
  2. Tap the three-dot menu (⋮).
  3. Go to Settings → More settings → Text messages and toggle the Delivery reports switch off.
Read receipts Samsung Messenger

How to turn off read receipts on WhatsApp

  1. Open the WhatsApp app.
  2. Tap You at the bottom right (iPhone) or the three-dot menu (⋮) → Settings at the top right (Android).
  3. Go to Privacy.
  4. Toggle the Read Receipts switch off.

Note that the read receipts setting in WhatsApp(jendela baru) is a mutual setting, meaning that when you choose not to send read receipts to others, you also won’t be able to see when they’ve read your sent messages. Read receipts are always sent in group chats.

Read receipts WhatsApp

How to turn off read receipts on Signal

As with WhatsApp, read receipts are a mutual feature on Signal(jendela baru). When you turn them off, you won’t be able to see other contacts’ read receipts.

  1. Open the Signal app.
  2. Tap your profile icon at the top left.
  3. Go to Privacy → Messaging → Read Receipts and toggle the switch off.
Read receipts Signal

What makes read receipts dangerous?

Read receipts aren’t inherently dangerous, and can be genuinely useful for everyday conversations. However, there are potential risks when you’re messaging strangers, rather than people you trust.

Scammers can use a read receipt as confirmation that a real, active person is behind a phone number, which can make you into a more attractive target for follow-up scam attempts.

Read receipts also create a timestamp of when you personally saw a message, which over time or in the wrong hands can reveal patterns like when you’re awake, at work, or reachable. In a harassment or stalking context, that’s a live signal that someone is currently on their phone and is looking at it.

Of course, there are other less serious consequences of using read receipts. If you have them on and read a message but don’t respond promptly, you could risk upsetting the sender of the message. And if you claim to be busy, but your read receipts show you were clearly on your phone, you might have some awkward questions to answer.

What’s the safest messaging app?

The safest messaging apps offer privacy and security. You should have no expectations of privacy when messaging using SMS, as messages are not encrypted and be read by both your mobile carrier and the app developer (such as Apple, Google, and Samsung).

Apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger (but not Instagram(jendela baru)) now offer end-to-end encryption(jendela baru) so Meta can’t read the content of your messages, but they still send a huge amount of metadata (such as who you talk to, when, for long, who they talk to, etc.) to Meta, which uses this information to target you with personalized ads.

Since May 2026, E2EE(jendela baru) has been rolling out between iPhones (running OS 26.5+) and Android devices running the latest Google Messages (but not Samsung Messenger at the time of writing). But again, your metadata is still visible to not just Apple and Google, but to your internet provider.

A much better option is to use open source apps that genuinely protect your privacy(jendela baru) (such as Signal or some of the European chat and messaging apps(jendela baru) currently on the market).

Final thoughts

Read receipts aren’t something most people need to worry too much about. For friends, family, and coworkers, they’re a small convenience with little real downside. However, the risk rises with strangers, unwanted contacts, or anyone you don’t want tracking your habits.

The good news is that every major messaging app gives you the option to turn them off, and doing so costs you very little (at most, a bit of ambiguity about whether someone’s seen your message yet). If privacy is your priority, pair disabled read receipts with a genuinely private encrypted(jendela baru) app like Signal that doesn’t collect and monetizes your data.