

My iPhone has been rebooted, turned off, and on/off settings toggled, and the issue keeps recurring. I have done some looking around for resolutions, and I have not found a permanent fix. However, it randomly re-starts showing Read Receipts, without warning (and the setting still shows as OFF). I am usually able to resolve this (temporarily) by toggling the Read Receipts setting on and off a couple of times. Every few weeks, a friend will let me know that my iMessages are showing Read Receipts, even though the setting is still confirmed OFF. It has performed as intended until iOS 14. I always have the setting for Read Receipts in iMessages turned OFF. For the last couple of months (during which I was running some version of iOS 14), I have been having intermittent and unpredictable issues with Read Receipts. If this setting is disabled, then the message will only show as delivered when it's successfully sent.I am running iOS 14.4.2 (no further updates available at this time). When this setting is enabled, it will show when a message has been read. This is because certain messaging services, such as iMessage, allow users to enable a setting called “Send Read Receipts”.

Text messages that say “read” indicate that the recipient has opened and read your message, while those that say “delivered” mean that your message was sent successfully but hasn't been opened yet. The Difference Between ‘Read' and ‘Delivered' Text Messages So if you're waiting for a response and you see that your text says “delivered” but not “read”, it just means that the person hasn't had a chance to look at it yet. This means that even if the recipient received your message, they haven't necessarily seen it yet. However, until the message is opened, it won't show as “read”. When a message is sent, its status changes to “delivered” once it reaches the receiver's phone.

If you'd like to turn Read Receipts back on for a specific text conversation, you’ll do this from within the message thread. The reason why your message says delivered but not read is because the recipient's phone has not yet opened or read the message. This post is part of iPhone Life 's Tip of the Day newsletter. Understanding Why a Message Says ‘Delivered' But Not ‘Read' You may still be able to tell if they have seen your message by looking at other cues, such as whether they are active on the platform or responding to other messages, but these are not guaranteed indicators. If the recipient turns off read receipts, then there is no way for you to know for sure whether or not they have seen your message. Read receipt is a feature that allows the sender to be notified when their message has been read. Unfortunately, it is not possible to tell if someone has read your text without using read receipt. Determining If Someone Has Read a Text Message on iPhone Without Read Receipts This means that when you turn off read receipts, you can view and read messages without notifying the sender that you have done so. Instead of seeing the Read receipt, the message will now show as Delivered, and tere is no way for the sender to reactivate the Read receipt. When you turn off read receipts, the sender of a message will no longer be able to tell if you have opened the message.
