Have you ever opened a WhatsApp message and then realized that the sender can now see the blue ticks? Sometimes you simply don’t have time to reply. Sometimes you want to read a message without immediately starting a conversation. While sometimes, you just prefer to keep your WhatsApp activity a little more private. Whatever the reason, WhatsApp gives you an option to turn off read receipts (famously known as Blue Ticks).
Once you disable this setting, people in individual chats generally won’t see the blue ticks when you read their messages. However, another side of this setting is that you also won’t be able to see read receipts (blue ticks) from other people in individual chats.
In this guide article, we have tried to explain how to turn off read receipts on WhatsApp on Android and iPhone, what happens after you disable them, whether the setting works in group chats and what the different WhatsApp ticks actually mean.
💡Quick answer: Open WhatsApp, go to Settings → Privacy → find Read receipts → turn the setting off.
What Are Read Receipts (Blue Ticks) on WhatsApp?
Read receipts are the check marks that appear next to WhatsApp messages and help indicate what happened to a message. In a typical personal (one-to-one) chat, you will usually see three main states:
- One grey tick: The message has been sent from your device, but it hasn’t been delivered to the recipient’s device yet.
- Two grey ticks: The message has been delivered to the recipient but he/she hasn’t read your message.
- Two blue ticks: The message has been read.
This is why many people simply call read receipts “blue ticks.” If you don’t want your contacts to know when you have seen or read their messages, you can disable read receipts from WhatsApp’s privacy settings.
How to Turn Off Read Receipts on WhatsApp
Turning off read receipts takes only a few seconds. The setting is available on both Android and iPhone. Let’s look at the steps for each platform.
How to Turn Off Read Receipts on WhatsApp on Android
If you’re using WhatsApp on an Android phone, follow the below steps.
Step 1: Open WhatsApp on your Android phone.
Step 2: Tap the three-dot menu available at the top right corner. Then tap the “Settings” option.
Step 3: Inside Settings, select the “Privacy” option.
Step 4: Scroll through the Privacy settings until you find Read receipts.
Step 5: Tap the toggle next to Read receipts to turn it off.