Disturbing warning issued to anyone who has their read receipts on

Sending text messages used to be as simple as typing out your words and clicking send. We never really worried if the message reached someone but just had faith it would.

Yet in recent years, with messages on WhatsApp and platforms like Facebook Messenger as well as iPhone iOS messages, we've become more used to seeing confirmation that our message has not only arrived but also been read too.

These 'read receipts' seem innocent and helpful enough, but there's also a potential issue for your privacy and could even be used against you.

This isn't the first time a phone feature has come with a warning, but it's important to understand why it might be something to remove.

Having your read receipts on could be leaving you open to being targeted by scammers (Getty Stock Image)

What is a read receipt?

Digging into what a read receipt actually is, it's a line of code that gets exchanged between the sender and the recipient of the message. It signals that the message has been opened or 'read'.

For the most part this might just be between you and your partner, family or a friend, but if you're ever sent a scam message then having read receipts on can mean the scammer is then aware you're receiving their messages on the other end. This could leave you open to being targeted with more scam messages in the future.

Read receipt warning

In 2024, researchers from the University of Vienna looked into the use of read receipts and warned it could have a darker side.

Gabriel K. Gegenhuber, one of the paper’s authors, revealed to Vox: "Potentially, you’ve even used these features yourself in a more harmless way and without any bad intentions, e.g., when your partner is on their way home in an unsafe neighbourhood and you know they’re low on battery you could ping them with an arbitrary message and wait for successful delivery to see whether their phone is still on."

Yet Gegenhuber adds that it could possibly be used in the wrong way as he noted: "Both delivery and read receipts could be abused by people that are actually close to you. Due to the information they leak, they could be used for stalking and intimate partner abuse."

Not everyone is against read receipts, sometimes they can hold us 'acountable' (Getty Stock Image)

Using read receipts is a personal decision as one journalist told Mashable why they preferred to keep theirs on.

They explained: "When I first switched from my HTC Evo 3D to an iPhone 4S (back in 2011!), I immediately turned on read receipts as a way to hold myself accountable.

"I needed something to break my horrible pattern of reading a text, mentally answering, and then closing the message window to move on to whatever it was I had to do next."

Yet not all of us want to let our friends know we've seen their message, and potentially forgotten to reply. So if you want to get rid of read receipts, it's a quick process.

How to switch off read receipts

For iPhone users or anyone using iOS, head to 'Settings' and then 'Messages' on your phone before you can then toggle off 'Send Read Receipts'.

If you want to do it on WhatsApp, it's a pretty similar method and you need to open the app and click into your 'Settings' and then account and then finally 'Privacy' and switch off 'Read Receipts'.