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This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Megaera Lorenz, PhD. Megaera Lorenz is an Egyptologist and Writer with over 20 years of experience in public education. In 2017, she graduated with her PhD in Egyptology from The University of Chicago, where she served for several years as a content advisor and program facilitator for the Oriental Institute Museum’s Public Education office. She has also developed and taught Egyptology courses at The University of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago.
This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources.
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This wikiHow teaches you how to know if your friend has seen the messages you have sent them in Facebook’s Messenger app. Keep in mind that your friends can use the same method to see what messages you have viewed. We’ll also explain how to turn off read receipts in case you don’t want others to know if you’ve read their messages.
Checking Read Status in Facebook Messenger
Look for a small version your contact's profile picture below and to the right of one of your recent messages. If you see it, that means they've viewed the message. This icon always appears next to the most recently read message, so any messages below that are unread.
Steps
Mobile
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Tap the Chats tab in the Messenger app. It’s at the bottom left side of the screen.- Messenger usually opens to the Chats tab by default. If it opens to a conversation, tap the back arrow at the top left corner of the screen.
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Tap the conversation you want to check.Advertisement -
Look for your friend's picture in the message window. This will appear at the bottom and to the right of one of the messages. The small picture demarcates the last one read by your friend.- Any messages following the one with the picture have not yet been read.
- If the message has been sent but not read, you’ll see Sent in gray text below the message on the right side.
- You won’t see the read icon if either of you have turned off read receipts in the Messenger app.
Web
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Navigate to Facebook in your browser. If prompted, enter your username and password and click Log in. -
Click the Messenger icon. It looks like a speech balloon icon with a white lightning bolt in the middle. You’ll find it on the right side of the menu bar at the top of the page. -
Click the conversation you want to check. -
Look for your contact’s profile picture next to the message. Check your most recent message in the conversation. If your contact has seen your message, their profile picture will appear in a tiny circular icon just below and to the right of the message.- If the message has been successfully sent but your contact hasn’t read it yet, you’ll see the word Sent just below the message on the right side.
- You won’t see the read icon if either of you have turned off read receipts in the Messenger app.
Disabling Read Receipts
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Tap the ☰ menu in the Messenger app. It’s in the top left corner of the screen. If you want to protect your privacy by turning off read receipts in Messenger, you can easily do so. However, keep in mind that this will also prevent you from seeing your contacts’ read receipts.- As of June 2024, this feature only seems to be available in the Messenger app. However, disabling read receipts in the app will also disable them on the web version of Facebook.
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Tap the blueSettings icon. You’ll see it at the top right corner of the expanded menu.
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Tap Privacy & Safety. It’s in the top group of settings. -
Scroll down and tap Read receipts. A new window will open. -
Toggle off the switch next to Show read receipts. Once you switch this setting off, read receipts will disappear from all your Messenger conversations.
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About This Article
Look for your friend's picture (on Mobile) or the word "Seen" (on Facebook.com) at the bottom right of your message.
