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How to Secretly Read a WhatsApp Without the Sender Knowing

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Stop WhatsApp reporting read receipts until you're ready to reply to your messages

By Marie Black

Editor In Chief, Tech Advisor

WhatsApp makes it far too easy to tell when someone has read your message. It’s handy when you are the sender of the message, but less welcome when it’s the other way around. You can’t hide under the duvet and pretend it didn’t happen. The sender knows you’ve seen their message and that you haven’t replied.

WhatsApp messages are just one of many modern intrusions in this digital age that do not take into account what we’re doing or how we’re feeling when they arrive on our phones. Sometimes you might want a chance to think about what to say before replying, yet not appear rude by not doing so immediately.

But that’s difficult unless you can stop WhatsApp from telling the sender you’ve opened the app and read their message.

How does someone know when you’ve read their message on WhatsApp? The most obvious way is through the tick symbols that are displayed at the end of every WhatsApp message: one grey tick is sent; two grey ticks is delivered; two blue ticks is read.

To make matters worse, you can select any message and tap the three dots icon, followed by Info, to see the exact time the message was delivered and when it was read.

And then there’s Last seen: even if you get around the tick system and the timing issues, can you really explain being online 10 minutes ago and not having seen the message sent to you an hour ago?

Here’s how to get around some of those problems.

How to turn off WhatsApp read receipts

You can get around WhatsApp’s tick system the official way or the sneaky way.

The official way is best if you don’t want anyone ever knowing when you’ve read their messages, but you’ll need to accept that you also won’t be able to tell when they’ve read your messages.

The sneaky way is best if you’re wanting to achieve this on an ad hoc basis – perhaps it’s just the one person you’re avoiding, rather than the whole world.

The official way to disable WhatsApp read receipts

Launch WhatsApp, tap the three dots icon at the top right, then choose Settings.

Select Account > Privacy. Scroll down to and toggle off the option for Read receipts.

Note that this does not apply to group messages, though it is less obvious when you have read a message in these conversations because the two ticks won’t turn blue until everyone has seen the message. You can still check who has read messages you have sent within group conversations by selecting the message, tapping the three dots icon and choosing Info.

The sneaky way to get around WhatsApp read receipts

There are various ways to read WhatsApp messages without the app realising you have read them. Most of these are made possible by you never opening the app in the first place.

Here are some places you can read WhatsApp messages without opening them:

  • In notification previews – at the top of your screen, in your notification menu, and even on your lock screen
  • In the WhatsApp home screen widget
  • On a connected smartwatch or fitness tracker that supports WhatsApp notifications
  • While using your phone in Aeroplane mode – but only for as long as it stays offline

You can turn on high-priority notifications in Settings > Notifications. This will make the appear at the top of your screen when they arrive, and you can read them and then swipe them away without ever opening them.

Lock screen notifications are also possible when you go to Settings > Notifications and look for this option under Messages.

Blocking someone is a last resort, especially if you want to remain friends. You can achieve this by opening the conversation thread, tapping the three dots at the top and choosing More > Block. Don’t forget to unblock them later if you do go down this path.

For as long as they remain blocked they won’t know whether you’ve read their message, but there will be other clues to the fact they are blocked: your profile picture and status will disappear, none of their messages will appear to be delivered, and they won’t be able to call you.

The following ‘tips’ will not allow you to read WhatsApp messages without being seen:

  • Marking messages as unread
  • Deleting WhatsApp messages after you have read them (this isn’t Inspector Gadget)

How to turn off Last Seen

It’s no good turning off read receipts if your message sender can see that you’ve been on WhatsApp and haven’t bothered to read their message. In fact, it’s worse.

As with read receipts, this works both ways: you can’t see when they were last online if you don’t let them see when you were.

Launch WhatsApp, tap the three dots at the top right of the screen and choose Settings. 

Select Account > Privacy, then select Last seen.

You can then choose who should see when you were last online: everyone, no-one or only your contacts.

It’s also possible now to control who can see whether you’re online or not in WhatsApp.

  • How to use WhatsApp on a computer
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Author: Marie Black, Editor In Chief

Marie is Editor in Chief, managing and leading the consumer editorial team. When she's not devising content strategy and analysing data she is a regular contributor of reviews, tips and tricks.

Marie has been writing about tech for 15 years, our resident Xiaomi and Chinese tech expert and a follower of all upcoming phones. AKA Tech Advisor's Power Ranger, she is the go-to for charging tech.

How To Turn WhatsApp Read Receipts On And Off

Sick of people knowing when you’ve read their message? Here’s how to turn read receipts off.

Wondering how to turn WhatsApp read receipts on and off? Many WhatsApp users never mess with the app’s settings, but you can customize it to a great degree – including choose whether to send read receipts or not. Here’s what you need to know…

What Is A WhatsApp Read Receipt?

A read receipt in WhatsApp is no different than a read receipt in other apps, including Apple’s Messages for iPhone. A read receipt simply sends the sender of a WhatsApp text message you receive a notification when you’ve actually read their message.

Read receipt can save you the annoyance of having the sender send follow-up texts saying “Hey, have you gotten my previous text?”

What Do WhatsApp Read Receipts Look Like?

WhatsApp uses a checkmark system for its read receipts. Depending on the number and color of the checkmarks, you can tell if a message was delivered or read. Here’s what the checkmarks mean:

A single checkmark: this means the WhatsApp message you sent was sent from your device successfully. If you see a single checkmark next to your message for quite some time it could mean the recipient has their phone shut off and is not capable of receiving messages at that time.

A double checkmark: double checkmarks mean that the message you sent has been successfully received by the recipient’s phone. This means the message both left your phone successfully and landed on the recipient’s phone successfully.

A blue double checkmark: when the double checkmarks next to a message turn blue, this means the recipient has read the message.

Read Receipts And Group WhatsApp Chats

Read receipts are available for both messages sent to a single individual and also group messages. However, while you can turn off read receipts for messages sent to individual recipients, you cannot disable read receipts for group chats.

The reasoning behind this is likely that WhatsApp feels read receipts are a valuable part of group chats that lets all recipients know when a message has been read and thus all members of the group are up to date with the conversation.

How To Turn WhatsApp Read Receipts On

WhatsApp read receipts are turned on by default. However, if you’ve turned them off and want to turn them back on, these are the steps to do so:

  1. Open the WhatsApp app.
  2. Tap the Setting icon in the app’s bottom toolbar.
  3. On the Settings screen, tap Account.
  4. On the Account screen, tap Privacy.
  5. On the Privacy screen, tap to toggle the Read Receipts switch to ON (white).

How To Turn WhatsApp Read Receipts Off

If you want to turn off read receipts, WhatsApp makes it very easy to do. Here’s how:

  1. Open the WhatsApp app.
  2. Tap the Setting icon in the app’s bottom toolbar.
  3. On the Settings screen, tap Account.
  4. On the Account screen, tap Privacy.
  5. On the Privacy screen, tap to toggle the Read Receipts switch to OFF (green).

One thing to keep in mind is that if you shut off read receipts in WhatsApp, you will not be able to receive read receipts for your messages. This means you can’t see when people read your messages even if they have read receipts enabled.

And keep in mind, no matter your read receipts settings, read receipts are always shown in group chats.

And check out:

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Michael Grothaus
Apple expert and novelist, Michael Grothaus has been covering tech on KnowYourMobile for the best part of 10 years. Prior to this, he worked at Apple. And before that, he was a film journalist. Michael is a published author; his book Epiphany Jones was voted as one of the best novels about Hollywood by Entertainment Weekly. Michael is also a writer at other publications including VICE and Fast Company.

How to hide from the interlocutor that you have read his message

December 4, 2014AndroidiOS

Instructions for iMessages, Facebook*, WhatsApp, Viber, VKontakte, Outlook and more.

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Each of us knows the following circumstances: we have read the message, but do not want or cannot answer it right away. And our interlocutor sees that the message has been read, but there is no answer. Awkward situation, right? Fortunately, it can be avoided.

How to discreetly read messages in any services

The most obvious option is to view new messages directly on the notification panel of the mobile device without opening the dialog itself. Thus, you can read at least short remarks of your interlocutors.

On iOS, swiping left on a message in the panel and clicking "View" will show even more text that might not fit in the preview. Many Android devices offer a similar opportunity. But if the message is very long, then using the panel it will not be read to the end.

There is another universal, but not the most convenient way. Having received a message, you simply turn off the Internet and read the dialogue in the appropriate program. The interlocutor will not know about reading until you connect the gadget to the Web. This is the only way to secretly view the text of the message, for example, in Instagram* Direct, and many other applications that cannot be disabled in the settings of the read receipt.

Now consider the options for specific programs and services.

How to quietly read messages in iMessages

Developers allow you to hide the fact of reading using settings. If you're using an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings → Messages and turn the switch next to Read Report to clear. After that, the interlocutors will not see whether you read their messages or not.

To turn off read receipts on a Mac, go to Messages → Settings → Accounts and uncheck the Read Receipt box.

How to discreetly read messages on Facebook*

Officially, this feature is not provided. But there are solutions from third-party developers.

If you use the Google Chrome browser, download the Unseen for Facebook* extension. Once installed, it will automatically hide the read status from your interlocutors.

appbox fallback https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jiomcgpfgkeefipihnplhadgdoollmap?hl=en

If you prefer Firefox, there is a similar plug-in for this browser - Message Seen Disable for Facebook*.

appbox fallback https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/facebook*-message-seen-disable/

Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to hide the read status in the mobile version. So if you need to ignore someone, you'll have to use Facebook* on your computer.

How to discreetly read WhatsApp messages

There is a special option in the settings of the WhatsApp mobile application for this purpose. Open the section "Settings" → "Account" ("Account") → "Privacy" ("Confidentiality") and turn off the "Read Receipts" toggle switch. After that, the messenger will no longer mark messages with blue checkmarks.

This setting is not available on WhatsApp desktop. But if you use it in the mobile application, then the changes will also apply to the computer.

How to discreetly read messages in Viber

In this popular messenger, you can also disable browsing reports directly in the official mobile client. To do this, go to the menu "Settings" → "Privacy" and turn off the "Viewed" option.

This setting is not available on the desktop version of Viber. But if you use it in the mobile application, then the changes will also apply to the computer.

How to discreetly read messages on VKontakte

There are no standard functions for this. But you can try workarounds.

Android users have access to an alternative VKontakte client called Kate Mobile. If you enter it with your account and click "Settings" → "Online" → "Close unread", then the program will hide the status of messages. Unfortunately, I could not find a client for iOS with the same functionality.

There is also a way to secretly read messages on the web version of VKontakte. You can use link http://vk.com/im?q=day:xxxxxxxx , specifying the numbers of the current date instead of x's in the format DDMMYYYY: for example, 19032018. A window with messages will open in which you can read them without the senders noticing. But keep in mind that developers can close this loophole at any time.

How to discreetly read messages in Outlook

You can disable browsing reports in Outlook on the web. Go to "Settings" → "Mail" → "Message handling" → "Read receipts" and check the box "Never send notifications". Changes will be saved for all Outlook clients.

*Meta Platforms Inc. and its social networks Facebook and Instagram are prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation. How to read WhatsApp messages incognito? WhatsApp by default "tells" the sender whether you have read the message. And some users don't like it. Now we will tell you how to bypass this limitation and read your WhatsApp messages in secret from everyone.

It is worth noting that in fact, in order to read messages in incognito mode, there are several ways at once.

Content

  • 1 Disable WhatsApp delivery report
  • 2 Enable toast notifications on the lock screen
  • 3 Use high-severity notifications for WhatsApp messages
  • 4 Read WhatsApp messages in the notification bar
  • 5 Read WhatsApp messages in the widget Android

Disable WhatsApp delivery report

This is probably the easiest way. The catch here is that it works both ways: if you don't let others know when you've read their messages, then you won't be able to see when they've read yours. Everything is fair.

  • Launch WhatsApp and tap on the three dots at the top right corner of the screen
  • Enter the Settings menu
  • Select your account
  • Go to the Privacy menu
  • Move the switch next to "read report" to disable this feature.

Enable pop-up notifications on the lock screen

You can also view pop-up WhatsApp message notifications on the lock screen. And if the messages are short, then you don’t even have to open anything. You can read them in the preview window.

  • Launch WhatsApp and tap the three dots on the top right corner of the screen
  • Enter Settings
  • Select Notifications
  • Select Pop-up notifications
  • Select Screen off only

Use high-severity notifications for WhatsApp messages

Same as pop-up notifications on screen locks, high priority notifications allow you to read whatsapp message without being noticed.

  • Launch WhatsApp and tap the three dots on the top right corner of the screen
  • Enter the "Settings" menu
  • Select "Notifications"
  • Turn on the switch next to "Use high priority notifications".

Read WhatsApp messages in the notification bar

Using an Android smartphone, you will be notified of new WhatsApp messages located in the notification bar at the top of the screen. Instead of tapping on them to open the app, swipe down to read the message. Your message will not be marked as read.

Read WhatsApp messages in an Android widget

Almost all Android phones support widgets. If WhatsApp messenger is installed on your smartphone, then you will also find the WhatsApp screen widget in a special repository.
Touch and hold a WhatsApp widget to drag it to the home screen. Any incoming WhatsApp messages will be visible in this widget without having to launch the app and open them. And that means without options that your presence will be noticed.

Even more interesting materials can always be found in our Telegram channel.

Tags
  • Widgets
  • beginners in Android
  • Operating system Android
  • more android

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