To turn off read receipts on iPhone, go to Settings, tap Apps, tap Messages and turn off Send Read Receipts. To do it for just one person, open your conversation with them in Messages, tap the contact icon at the top and turn off Send Read Receipts there.
Once they're off, people texting you see Delivered under their message instead of Read, so they know it arrived but not that you've opened it. Here's the catch most people miss: the setting for one person beats the setting for everyone. Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 says the global switch only affects conversations with contacts whose read receipts you never turned on individually. So if you once switched them on for your sister, turning them off in Settings won't change her chat.
Read receipts on iPhone at a glance
| Setting | Where it lives | Who it affects |
|---|---|---|
| Send Read Receipts for everyone | Settings, then Apps, then Messages | Every conversation you haven't set one by one |
| Send Read Receipts for one person | Messages, the conversation, then the contact icon at the top | That contact only, even if your global setting says the opposite |
| Read receipts from other people | Their iPhone, not yours | Nobody else: you can only turn them on for yourself |
How to turn off read receipts for everyone
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Tap Apps, then tap Messages.
- Turn off Send Read Receipts.
That covers most of your conversations. Then go through any chat where you'd switched read receipts on by hand, because those stay on until you change them one at a time.
How to turn off read receipts for one person
Use this when you're happy for most people to see you've read their messages but want some breathing room with one person. It works the other way round too, if you've turned receipts off for everyone but want one person to know you've seen their texts.
- Open the Messages app and tap the conversation.
- Tap the contact icon at the top of the conversation.
- Turn off Send Read Receipts to stop that person seeing when you've read their messages, or turn it on to let only them know.
If you later turn read receipts back on for everyone, a contact you switched off individually stays off. You'll have to turn the setting back on for that one contact.
What the other person sees
With read receipts on, the sender sees the word Read below the messages they've sent you once you've opened them. Before you open a message, or with read receipts off, they see Delivered. So turning receipts off doesn't hide that the message reached your phone. It only hides whether you've opened it.
You also can't make anyone else send you read receipts. If you want to know when someone's opened your texts, the only route is to ask them to turn read receipts on for you in their own conversation settings.
Other ways to read on your own terms in Messages
Read receipts are one setting. Messages has a few more that help when you don't want to reply straight away.
- Mark it as unread. Swipe right on a conversation in the list to mark it unread so you can come back to it. To do several at once, tap Edit, tap Select Messages, pick the conversations, then tap Unread in the bottom left corner.
- Show unread only. In the conversation list, open the filter menu and tap Unread. A checkmark shows next to Unread while the filter is on. Tap it again to see everything.
- Clear the lot. Tap Edit, tap Select Messages, then tap Read All to mark every unread message as read.
- Catch up fast. In an unread conversation, you can jump straight to the first message you haven't seen.
- Pin the people who matter. Touch and hold a conversation, then tap Pin, and it sits at the top of the list as a larger icon.
- Pause the pings. Turn on Do Not Disturb or another Focus to pause notifications from Messages.
If you're on iOS 27 with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or iPhone 16 model or later, message summaries replace the previews in your conversation list with the key points of your unread messages. You can turn Summarize Messages off if you'd rather see the latest message instead. Apple Intelligence isn't available in all languages or regions.
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Keep strangers out of your main conversation list
If the texts you're avoiding come from people you don't know, read receipts aren't the fix. Screen Unknown Senders filters their messages into a separate folder, and you don't get notified about them unless you want to be.
- Open the Messages app.
- In the conversation list, open the filter menu and tap Manage Filtering.
- Turn on Screen Unknown Senders.
- To still get alerts for time-sensitive texts like verification codes, tap Allow Notifications and turn on the categories you want. The options vary by country and region.
When a filtered sender turns out to be someone you know, open Unknown Senders, tap their message and tap Mark as Known, or add them to Contacts. Until you do, everything they send keeps landing in Unknown Senders. For someone you never want to hear from again, it's simpler to block their number on your iPhone.
My verdict
I'd turn read receipts off for everyone, then switch them on for the handful of people who need to know you've seen their message, like a partner or a colleague waiting on an answer. That keeps the people who rely on it in the loop without putting you on the spot with everyone else. Skip it if your contacts treat Read as your quick reply, because Delivered tells them nothing. And if you deleted a chat while tidying up, here's how to get deleted texts back.
Frequently asked questions
Can I turn off read receipts for just one person on iPhone?
Yes. Open the conversation in Messages, tap the contact icon at the top and turn off Send Read Receipts. That setting applies to that contact only.
What does the sender see when read receipts are off?
They see Delivered below their message instead of Read, so they know it arrived but not that you've opened it.
Why does someone still see Read after I turned read receipts off?
The global switch only affects conversations with contacts whose read receipts you never turned on individually. If you turned them on for that person, turn them off in that conversation too.
Can I see if someone has read my message on iPhone?
Only if they've turned read receipts on. You can't turn on read receipts for anyone but yourself, so you'd need to ask them.
