How to Turn Off Read Receipts in Signal (or Turn Them On)

With a focus on privacy, you might not want those you’re communicating with on Signal to know you’ve looked at their text message. Fortunately, you can turn off read receipts and disable the indicator that shows that you have seen their communication.

Read receipts, a popular feature on other messaging apps like WhatsApp and iMessage, appear as white indicator bubbles on messages that you send in Signal. If you turn off read receipts and block the person on the other end from seeing that you’ve read their message, you lose the ability to see if they’ve read your message.

Start by opening the “Signal” app on your iPhone or Android smartphone.

Open the "Signal" app

Next, tap on your profile picture, avatar, or username’s initials in the app’s top-left corner.

Select the “Privacy” option from the “Settings” menu.

Select the "Privacy" option

Finally, toggle off (or on) the “Read Receipts” setting.

Toggle off the "Read Receipts" setting

As seen below, with read receipts on in Signal, both checkmark bubbles will be filled with a solid white color when the message is received and read. With read receipts off, the bubbles will be empty, but the checkmarks will indicate that the message was delivered.

Read receipts in the Signal app

The recipient will see the same type of indication on text messages that they send. Neither you nor the person you’re communicating with will be able to see if a message has been looked at when you turn off read receipts.