How to See If Someone Read Your Facebook Messenger Message

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Discover if someone opened Facebook Messenger and viewed your text in a few simple steps

Written by Megaera Lorenz, PhD

Last Updated: July 25, 2024 Fact Checked

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Mobile

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Web

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Disabling Read Receipts

This wikiHow teaches you how to know if your friend has seen the messages you have sent them in Facebook’s Messenger app. Keep in mind that your friends can use the same method to see what messages you have viewed. We’ll also explain how to turn off read receipts in case you don’t want others to know if you’ve read their messages.

Checking Read Status in Facebook Messenger

Look for a small version your contact's profile picture below and to the right of one of your recent messages. If you see it, that means they've viewed the message. This icon always appears next to the most recently read message, so any messages below that are unread.

Section 1 of 3:

Mobile

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1
Tap the Chats tab in the Messenger app. It’s at the bottom left side of the screen.
- Messenger usually opens to the Chats tab by default. If it opens to a conversation, tap the back arrow at the top left corner of the screen.
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3
Look for your friend's picture in the message window. This will appear at the bottom and to the right of one of the messages. The small picture demarcates the last one read by your friend.
- Any messages following the one with the picture have not yet been read.
- If the message has been sent but not read, you’ll see Sent in gray text below the message on the right side.
- You won’t see the read icon if either of you have turned off read receipts in the Messenger app.

Section 2 of 3:

Web

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Navigate to Facebook in your browser. If prompted, enter your username and password and click Log in.
It looks like a speech balloon icon with a white lightning bolt in the middle. You’ll find it on the right side of the menu bar at the top of the page.
4
Look for your contact’s profile picture next to the message. Check your most recent message in the conversation. If your contact has seen your message, their profile picture will appear in a tiny circular icon just below and to the right of the message.
- If the message has been successfully sent but your contact hasn’t read it yet, you’ll see the word Sent just below the message on the right side.
- You won’t see the read icon if either of you have turned off read receipts in the Messenger app.

Section 3 of 3:

Disabling Read Receipts

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1
Tap the ☰ menu in the Messenger app. It’s in the top left corner of the screen. If you want to protect your privacy by turning off read receipts in Messenger, you can easily do so. However, keep in mind that this will also prevent you from seeing your contacts’ read receipts.
- As of June 2024, this feature only seems to be available in the Messenger app. However, disabling read receipts in the app will also disable them on the web version of Facebook.
You’ll see it at the top right corner of the expanded menu.
It’s in the top group of settings.
A new window will open.
Once you switch this setting off, read receipts will disappear from all your Messenger conversations.