Telegram has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 700 million monthly active users as of 2022. Its focus on speed, security, and privacy has made it a favorite among many users.
One useful feature in Telegram is read receipts. Read receipts allow you to see if your message has been read by the recipient. While this can be helpful, you may sometimes want to read messages without triggering a read receipt.
In this comprehensive guide, I’ll explain everything you need to know about read receipts in Telegram, including:
Table of Contents
What Are Read Receipts in Telegram
Read receipts, also known as “blue ticks,” indicate when your message has been opened and read by the recipient.
In Telegram, when you send a message, you will see one check mark when it is delivered. When the recipient opens that message, a second checkmark appears, signaling that your message has been read.
Read receipts screenshot
So if you see two check marks, you know your Telegram contact has read your latest message.
Read receipts work similarly in both private chats and group chats. However, in groups you can only see the number of recipients who have read your message, not who specifically read it.
Why Read Receipts Can Be Problematic
While read receipts seem useful on paper, they can cause issues in some situations:
- Creates pressure to respond instantly: Some people feel obligated to reply immediately once a read receipt shows the message was seen. This can cause stress.
- Violates privacy: Read receipts enable people to monitor if and when you’ve read their messages, which some consider a breach of privacy.
- Exposes when you’re ignoring messages: If someone sees you’ve read their message but didn’t reply, they’ll know you’re intentionally ignoring them.
- Data privacy issues: Read receipts require Telegram to collect data on when you open messages. Some people prefer apps don’t access this info.
For these reasons, you may want to read messages without triggering a read receipt alert to the sender.
How to Read Telegram Messages Without Sending Read Receipts
Unfortunately, Telegram does not have a built-in setting to disable read receipts.
However, there are a few handy workarounds to read messages without sending read notifications:
1. Enable Airplane Mode
The easiest method is to enable Airplane Mode on your device before opening Telegram. This cuts off internet access temporarily, so Telegram can’t send read receipt data.
To do this:
- Turn on Airplane Mode on your device.
- Open Telegram and go to the chat you want to read.
- Read the new messages.
- Close Telegram completely once you’re done reading.
- Turn Airplane Mode off after closing Telegram.
As long as you follow this exact order, the messages will show as unread to the sender since read receipts couldn’t be delivered.
2. Use Notification Previews
If you use Telegram on Android, you can view message previews from notifications without opening the chat itself.
To do this:
- Pull down your Notification Shade.
- Tap on the Telegram notification.
- A preview of new messages will show up that you can read.
The sender won’t receive a read receipt since you didn’t actually open the Telegram chat.
3. Long Press the Chat
You can also take advantage of Telegram’s preview feature by long pressing a chat:
- In your chat list, long press on the profile icon of your contact’s latest message.
- This will preview their most recent message temporarily.
- Once you release the long press, the preview disappears.
This allows you to quickly sneak a peek at recent messages. Just repeat long pressing to keep reading more previews.
Telegram Read Receipts in Channels
The read receipt function works differently in Telegram channels compared to private chats:
- You can see the number of channel members who viewed your message, not specific people.
- There will be an eye icon next to messages posted in channels. The number beside this eye shows views.
- This viewer count updates in real-time as more subscribers read your message.
Channel admins cannot disable read receipts since channels are considered public.
Conclusion
I hope this guide gave you a better understanding of how Telegram read receipts work, why they can be problematic, and some methods to read messages secretly.
While Telegram doesn’t have a built-in setting to turn off read receipts, the workarounds provide ways to maintain more privacy.
Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions!
