To be annoyed at people who turn off 'read' receipts on WhatsApp?

I turned mine off. It's just to gain some more privacy. Nowadays with technology every body is "available" all the time. I just want to put that boundary there.

Most people I message have their ticks turned off.

Mine are off as sometimes I like to pretend I haven’t seen a message. Mainly because my boss is a controlling nightmare who messages me all hours and expects instant replies.

We have a work group chat, which I mute every evening/weekend/holiday, but she’s learned that if she @s me, she can bypass the mute.

I also have the notifications set so that I can read a message through my Lock Screen so I don’t have to actually open the message

The other thing to keep in mind @PrincessOfPreschool and @Ellie1015 is that blue ticks are not necessarily a guarantee of the recipient having seen a message. Before I turned the ticks off, my watch would often flash up the message on its screen, but I wouldn't look, however it would then show the sender two blue ticks as though I'd read it. Also, if anyone uses WhatsApp Web, if that happens to be open on the relevant screen it can show two blue ticks to the transmitter without the recipient even being in the same building as the machibe the message has been received on.

So, two blue ticks doesn't guarantee anything.

I leave my blue ticks on, as my friends are normal people who don't expect instant replies. It's fine to take hours, or even a couple of days to reply, because we all have lives! But to complain that people turn the blue ticks off is bizarre - and, yes, very controlling.

I turned mine off because my mum will badger me if she sees I've seen a message and not immediately replied. In doing so it applies to everyone in my contacts but that's the price they pay for my mums poor impulse control and lack of patience😅 it also means I can't see read receipts either.

This exactly - I know what my priorities are not the sender !

I find it weirdly controlling when people regularly check to see if and when I've received the message! My time is my own and I'll reply in my own convenience, not within a certain timescale of when I've read the message.

I put the read receipts off due to a very demanding friend of mine who, when she saw you'd read the message and not yet replied, would send enojis as if to say hello?? Yeah, I'm not entertaining that shit.

I always keep my read receipts on but I dont give a toss if others dont.

I dont worry if they have read my message or not because we all know most people are checking their phone constantly (at least everyone I know does this anyway!) so I presume they will have read it at some point or another.

If they dont reply, then I always assume it's because they dont want to and just get on with my life. I refuse to chase people up to ensure they have read my messages. If they have no interest in replying then fine by me, I just move on. No big deal.

You know when it's been received though because it displays 2 ticks when it's been delivered.

I don't want to feel pressured to reply. I've never felt the need to check if someone else has seen my message, I just wait.

agree! but this was after several WhatsApp friends/family did it and I thought ok I shall do the same!

It's not selective. It's all or nothing. Very egotistical of you to think that they specifically don't want you knowing they've read your message.

Do you not think it's far more likely they don't want someone else knowing they've read their message?

I can think of various reasons why some people would like to keep this notification private.

Mine are off because I'm too fucking busy to be beholden to someone wondering why I've not replied yet

Mine are off because that's how you ensure you also don't see when someone has read your messages. I found knowing someone had read my message and hadn't replied could make me over analyse and get upset, so I switched it off for my own benefit

I haven't turned off the blue ticks, partly because I didn't know you could, but mostly because I only chat to DH with that app and wouldn't feel the need. It can be helpful to know if the other person has seen a message or not, but it's obvious why someone might want to lower the feeling of pressure to respond immediately.

It's the same as peeking at the beginning of a message in your phone's notifications without opening it to read the whole thing. If I open it and the person can see it's been read, I feel like I 'have' to respond soon. Sometimes I just want to live my life without that pressure to drop everything and answer a message, especially when it requires me to make a decision or craft a more carefully worded reply.

Thx, brilliant 😝 I’ll do this.

On my phone half the message on WhatsApp usually pops up as a notification, so I can get the gist of it. There are a few people I CBA to interact with (extended family) and so I don’t open it for days, but know what it’s about. I’ll respond days later. I reckon it really annoys them, but I don’t care.

If all my family are home, and I’ve checked in with my parents, there’s no need for me to have my phone on me.

I’m off now to remove all my statuses. There is one person who messages me out of work about gossip/ politics/ issues and if I don’t answer, I’ll have 2 or 3 subsequent ones asking why I’ve not answered. I’ve not found the words yet to articulate what I want to say; “FFS stop texting me after work when I’m eating dinner/ kicking back with a glass of red/ watching the telly/ chillin with my family. I’m not at work, and I don’t f*cking care if Angela from Accounts is leaving. Get a life”.

Mine are off. If it's "I'm in Sainsburys is there anything you want me to pick up for you?" then I'll reply. If it's "I'm in Sainsburys and just seen Beryl, you'll never guess what she's just told me"....then, nah can't be arsed with that. Maybe your messages don't warrant a reply sometimes because that person doesn't find them interesting.

I didn't even know you could do that- thanks OP!

No, I don't think it's as controlling to want the blue ticks on as that's the default option. If you turn off the blue ticks, it also means they don't know if I've read their messages. Sometimes I don't see messages for long periods and sometimes I forget to reply all together! I just think it's transparent if someone knows a message has been read or not.

It's only transparent if everyone is using those blue ticks the same way as you. How do you know your friends and family would come back to a message after a while and see you hadn't read and just assume it means you aren't ignoring them? You can read WhatsApp messaging from the notification screen on many phones which wouldn't make the ticks blue. I know people who do it that way to see if a message needs urgent attention or if it can wait.

If I don't get a reply to message I never went back and checked the ticks, I just assume they're busy and havent had time or have forgotten as they have other priorities.

I mean this kindly, I see you used "peace of mind" in a previous post and it sounds like you maybe put emotional value into those blue ticks and assume others do. Thats the exact reason some people turn them off, to avoid confusion and/or conflict as not everyone interprets them the same way as you. You assume that others go back and check your blue ticks and would know you weren't ignoring them if it's not been opened yet, some actually would feel if you'd been online since it was sent that you were deliberately not opening the message from them, or that you'd read it from the notification and decided they weren't important enough to be a priority to you.

The peace of mind you have from choosing to keep them on, is the peace of mind others get from turning them off.

The ticks are always grey for me. I'm always perplexed when people talk about blue ticks on here.

I've had both my online status and read receipts turned off for ages. It's unhealthy to keep checking if someone has read your message or not and anticipate a response. Conversely, I cannot see if my message was delivered or the last time someone was online- and quite frankly, I don't care.

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I can read my messages without opening them (they appear on my lock screen) so the blue tick visibility function is obsolete to a degree @PrincessOfPreschool

My phone is for MY convenience, no one else’s.

Mine are off because it’s no one’s business if I’ve read their message. I also get anxiety around whether other people have read my message so switching them off solves both problems. I think it’s more controlling that you’d rather know when people have read your message

Controlling? Wtf? Sorry, op that's bonkers.

I don't get where you're coming from at all.

Why do you NEED to see if it's been read not just delivered?