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Here's How To Avoid Read Receipts On Facebook Messenger

Here's How To Avoid Read Receipts On Facebook Messenger

Useful information.

James Dawson

James Dawson

So here it is, you've come here looking for answers.

Maybe, you'd like to avoid an awkward conversation, so you're just going to pretend you never saw it. Maybe, you're wanting to play to cool with that girl or guy you've had your eye on for a while.

Whatever your reasons you want to avoid giving someone a 'read' notification on Facebook Messenger.

While there's no official way to turn off read receipts in Messenger, like you can in iMessage or WhatsApp, but there are some work arounds.

Read messages through notifications

Probably the most classic of all the methods, this method involves doing exactly what it says on the tin.

If you're notification alert style set to either Banners or Alert on iOS then you should receive notifications when you receive message from somebody, you can read the message(s) as they come in as notifications, rather than having to go into the app.

My fellow LADbible journalist Joshua Teal responds to the question "how would you describe yourself?"

As soon as you open a message, either for a quick reply or within the Messenger app, it'll change the read receipt from a blue check mark (delivered) to your profile photo (read).

Basically this means that a 'blue tick' can mean that the recipient has read the message, but it's more ambiguous - they could simply have not received it at all.

Go into airplane mode

So this is where we get into 'sneak as fuck' territory. This trick is the same as the one that allows you to view people's Snapchats without them getting a notification.

What you do is: Turn on airplane mode, open Messenger, read all received messages, then quit the app (this means launching the multitasker and boot it) before switching airplane mode off.

Credit: Wiki Commons

Airplane mode closes all Wi-Fi and data usage, to that means the App never passes the read receipt through though to the person (or people) you're in a conversation with.

Use a Chrome extension

Presuming you're not using Internet Explorer - and lets be honest if you are you deserve to be able to fuck with your friends, family and significant others through this anyway - you can download an extension for Chrome which allows you to block read receipts.

It's a lot harder preventing read receipts on Desktop, but the success will vary depending on which Chrome extension you use. Facebook Chat Privacy and Unseen are two good examples.

***

Either that, you could do what I do and leave them on read, and reply when you feel like it.

Zero. Fucks. Given.

Featured Image Credit: PA Images

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