Turn read receipts on or off in Messages on Mac
In the Messages app, you can use read receipts to let someone know when you’ve seen their messages.
When read receipts are turned on, the sender sees the word “Read” below messages they’ve sent to you, indicating that you’ve read their message. If you haven’t read their message, the sender sees “Delivered”.
You can turn on read receipts for everyone or for individual contacts.
Note: To use read receipts, you and your recipient must be using iMessage.
Turn on read receipts
You can turn on read receipts to let everyone know when you’ve seen their messages.
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.Choose Messages > Settings, then click iMessage.
Click Settings, then select “Send read receipts”.
Note: If you turned off read receipts for a particular contact, you have to turn the setting back on for that one contact individually. (See Turn on read receipts for one person, below.)
Turn off read receipts
If you don’t want others to know that you’ve seen their messages, you can turn off read receipts.
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.Choose Messages > Settings, then click iMessage.
Click Settings, then deselect “Send read receipts”.
Note: This action affects only those conversations with contacts whose read receipts you never turned on individually. (See Turn off read receipts for one person, below.)
Turn on read receipts for one person
You can turn on read receipts in a conversation to let that one recipient know when you’ve seen their incoming messages, even if you turned off read receipts generally.
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.Select a conversation.
Click the contact or icon at the top, then select Send Read Receipts.
Turn off read receipts for one person
If you turned on read receipts for an individual, but you want them to stop getting read receipts, you can turn the setting off for that one contact.
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.Select a conversation.
Click the contact or icon at the top, then deselect Send Read Receipts.
Get read receipts when someone else sees your messages
You can’t turn on read receipts for anyone but yourself. To receive read receipts when your messages are seen, ask the recipient to turn them on. See Turn on read receipts for one person, above.