Twitter’s website and mobile app allow you to enable or disable read receipts for messaging.
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By default, Twitter displays read receipts so you know if recipients have read your DMs.
You can turn read receipts on or off from the Privacy and safety settings on the website or mobile app.
If you disable read receipts, you won’t get read receipts from other users.
Read receipts are handy – they let you know when someone you’ve messaged has read your DM. Whether or not they reply right away, knowing that the message has been seen can be enormously helpful.
Of course, read receipts are a double-edged sword; you might not want other people to know if you’ve seen their messages, which gives you plausible deniability if you don’t reply right away (or ever). Thankfully, it’s easy to turn read receipts on or off, so you can control how much other people know about what you’ve read on Twitter.
How read receipts work on Twitter
Twitter read receipts only let others know if you’ve read their direct messages or not — it doesn’t have anything to do with ordinary tweets. And it also only displays the “Seen” receipt for conversations in progress. If someone sends you a DM request, they won’t know if you’ve seen it until you accept the message.
Quick tip: The read receipt settings work both ways. If you turn off read receipts, you will no longer see read receipts from other users, either.
How to turn Twitter read receipts on or off on desktop
You can control whether others can see if you’ve read their DMs with just a few clicks in the Twitter website in any browser.
1. Go to Twitter in your web browser and log in if needed.
2. Click the three-dot More icon in the pane on the left side of the page.
3. In the pop-up menu, click Settings and Support, then Settings and privacy.
To change read receipt settings, start by going to Settings and privacy.
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4. On the Settings page, click Privacy and safety.
5. In the Your Twitter activity section, click Direct Messages.
6. To turn read receipts on, check the checkbox for Show read receipts. Otherwise, clear the checkbox to turn off read receipts.
Clear the checkbox to turn off read receipts, and no one can tell if you’ve read their messages yet.
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How to turn Twitter read receipts on or off on mobile
You can also control read receipts for DMs using the Twitter app.
1. Start the Twitter app and tap your account icon at the top of the screen.
2. Tap Settings and Support, then Settings and privacy.
3. Tap Privacy and safety.
4. Tap Direct messages.
Go to the Privacy and safety settings to turn read receipts on or off for Twitter DMs.
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5. To turn read receipts on, swipe the button to the right beside Show read receipts. Otherwise, swipe the button to the left to turn off read receipts.