am I paranoid or can 'phones do this?

[moogster1a]

if someone sends me a text, can they tell if I've opened it?
Someone has just asked me for a favour which I really don't want to do, but if I'd have opened the text 10 minutes later would have been too late to help anyway IYSWIM.

my old phone used to do this. I had it about 8 years ago. My current phone doesnt and neither have any of the phones i have had in between. I would say it was a rare feature but possible.

Not as far as I'm aware. Some networks will let you know the text has been delivered but unless someone corrects me then there is no way for them to know if you've read it.

Email is dfferent, you can get read reports on them, but not texts.

Yes, my phone has a "read" report function.

Could a DC have been fiddling with your phone, and 'opened' the text? Or maybe you opened it but then had to fly across the room for a nappy emergency before you'd had a chance to read it, and the clean up took 10 mins?

Yes some phones do show when the message has been opened

sometimes yes

the sender needs to tick read receipt in his settings, different to delivery receipt

I used to have a friend who would send a text, wait for the read message and then expect an answer immediately. Would then text to see why they hadn't replied. Seriously scared off the men!

I haven't had a phone that did delivery notifications since about 2005 and it wasn't really a top of the range model back then! Old Nokias used to do them unless you turned the facility off. I actually found it rather useful back then.

It's pretty unlikely that
a) their phone has that feature
b) they have it turned on

samsung used to do it too.

So not impossible that a phone would, but if you don't want to do it, say you didn't see it, what are they going to do about it.

My blackberry can request a delivery report. It can also allow read receipts or not , I have to tick a box for it to do so.

my smartphone has it, so does son's

How do they know it wasn't too late then and there? If it was an unreasonable favour, or you are all out of "balance" with your favours, look at it this way.

Anyway, the 10 mins is more than up now!

P.S. I mainly clicked on this post to congratulate you for the beautifully pedantic spelling " 'phones". Please tell me you also say "telephone to" ...