Glossary
What are read receipts?
Read receipts tell the person who messaged you that you’ve opened their message, like the “Seen” under an Instagram DM. Instagram lets you turn them off for every chat or only for chosen ones, and Messenger has a read receipt setting of its own.
Updated 6 October 2026
A read receipt tells the sender you’ve opened their message: “Seen” under an Instagram DM, or a tiny copy of your profile photo under a Messenger message.
How to turn read receipts off
On Instagram
Instagram’s Help Center says read receipts let others in a chat see when you’ve viewed their message, and that you can manage them for certain chats or for all chats. So there are two switches. One covers every chat: in your settings, under Messages and story replies, tap Show read receipts and switch Read receipts off. The other lives inside a single conversation: tap the chat name at the top, tap Privacy & safety and switch Read receipts off there. The article lists this for the Instagram app on iPhone, iPad and Android, not for computers.
The two don’t override each other. A setting you change inside one chat stays as you set it, even if you later change the all-chats switch, so a chat where you turned receipts on keeps showing them after you turn them off everywhere else.
On Messenger
Meta announced a read receipt control for Messenger in December 2023, in the same update that made end-to-end encryption the default for personal chats. It lets you decide whether others can see when you’ve read their messages.
Tip: Turning receipts off hides when you read a message, not whether you did. As soon as you reply, react or like the message, the other person knows you saw it.
What the other person sees
- Instagram: “Seen” appears under your latest message once they open the chat. In a group chat, the setting works the same way for the other people in the chat.
- Messenger: a tiny copy of the reader’s profile photo sits under the last message they’ve read, one per person in a group.
- Activity status is separate. The green dot and “Active now” show that someone is online, not that they read your message, and they have their own switch.
- Restrict on Instagram stops that one account seeing whether you’ve read their messages, and when you’re online, according to Instagram’s Help Center.
Read receipts in a business inbox
For a business, the receipt isn’t the problem; the silence after it is. A customer who asks about price or stock and sees “Seen” with no answer can easily read that as being ignored, and hiding the receipt only hides the delay.
Reading a message also changes nothing on Meta’s side. Tools that reply through Meta’s messaging API, auto-reply apps included, can only message someone within 24 hours of that person’s last message, with a narrow exception for support from real people. Opening the chat doesn’t extend that window. Only a new message from the customer does.
- Send a holding reply when you can’t answer yet: “Got it, I’ll confirm the price by 5pm.”
- Answer the questions you get every day (prices, hours, delivery) automatically, so a reply lands even when nobody is at the phone.
An example
A customer asks your shop’s Instagram account whether a dress comes in medium. You open the DM between appointments, so they see “Seen,” and a quick “Checking now, back within the hour” keeps it from looking like silence.
Questions people ask
Can I hide read receipts from just one person?
On Instagram, yes. Open that chat, tap the chat name at the top, tap Privacy & safety and switch Read receipts off. The change applies only to that conversation, so everyone else still sees “Seen.”
Why is there no “Seen” on a message they clearly read?
They may have turned read receipts off for your chat or for all chats, or they may have restricted you on Instagram. In each case “Seen” stays hidden after they open the message, so a missing receipt proves nothing.
Can customers see when a business reads their DM?
Usually, yes. A business account’s chats show read receipts like anyone else’s, so the customer can tell when their message was opened. That’s why a quick “thanks, looking into it” beats a perfect answer sent hours later.
Is it rude to turn off read receipts?
Not in personal chats. Plenty of people switch them off so they can answer in their own time. In a business inbox, what customers notice is how long they wait for an answer, with or without a receipt.
Sources
Related terms
- Response timeResponse time is how long a customer waits between messaging your business and getting your reply, usually measured to your first reply.
- Active statusActive status is the setting that lets certain people see when you’re online (“Active now”) or when you last used Instagram (“Active 3h ago”).
- Green dotA green dot on someone’s photo in your Instagram or Messenger chats means they’re in the app right now. When they leave, it becomes a note like “Active 20m ago.”
- Vanish modeVanish mode lets people send disappearing messages, photos and videos in an Instagram chat. They disappear when someone leaves the chat or turns vanish mode off.
- Message requestA message request is a DM from someone outside your chats. It waits in a separate requests folder until you accept it, delete it or block the sender.
- RestrictRestrict quietly limits one Instagram account: their comments on your posts are hidden from others, and they can’t see when you’re online or have read their DMs.
More terms
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