Updated on 4/30/2024 with new instructions for revealing read receipts for the Facebook Messenger app.
Read receipts aren't everyone's favorite thing – after all, they can let friends know we've read a message when we would rather pretend we hadn't – but they're handy for keeping up with online conversations. And Facebook Messenger has read receipts if you know where to look.
Read receipts on the Facebook Messenger app
When you open a chat with a friend, it's easy to see if they have read your message because you'll see a miniature version of their profile picture under your message. If they haven't, you'll see "Sent" with the time elapsed since you sent the message.
Read receipts on the Facebook website
To tell whether a message has been read, log into Facebook with a web browser (or access the Facebook Messenger website by going to messenger.com instead of facebook.com). Clicking on the Messenger icon reveals a list of the people you've communicated with. Selecting a person pops up a small window over your Facebook Feed.
If a friend has read your message, you'll see a miniature version of their profile picture. If you mouse over the picture, a popup will show the date and time it was seen. If they haven't read your message, you'll see "Sent" under your message with the time that has elapsed.
Read more: Tired of Junk Facebook Posts? This Setting Might Make a Difference
You won't always be able to see if a message has been read
A message that shows as being unread doesn't necessarily mean the recipient hasn't read it. Message notifications let friends read your messages without triggering a read receipt. You'll only get a read receipt when your friend opens the Messenger app to read your message or views messages through Facebook.
Read more: Facebook Messenger is Now Encrypted: Key Things You Need to Know
[Image credit: Facebook Messenger app on iPhone via Techlicious/Canva screenshots via Techlicious and Facebook]
Elizabeth Harper is a writer and editor with more than a decade of experience covering consumer technology and entertainment. In addition to writing for Techlicious, she's Editorial Director of Blizzard Watch and is published on sites all over the web including Time, CBS, Engadget, The Daily Dot and DealNews.
From jean penny on January 20, 2019 :: 3:12 pm
I would like to go on Facebook
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From Jeremey Hustman on March 03, 2021 :: 4:26 pm
There is nothing good about Facebook. It’s a liberal shithole. They remove everything they don’t agree with, which is most of it. Smart people don’t use Facebook any more.
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From Rome on July 07, 2021 :: 8:14 pm
What do dumb people that still listen to old petulant baby wannabe dictators use?
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From Hajiazula on November 11, 2021 :: 12:14 pm
“wannabe dictators” says the man who we are left to presume thinks that biden, an arms dealing peado who has been owned by china, a literal fascist dictatorship since the early 2000’s is a good “leader”?
The same man who brands other people racist, yet bidens name and money alone pushed a bill in 1994 that allowed america to arrest and imprison minorities en masse without probable cause.
You can like who you want, you can agree with whatever policies you want, but you cannot be a complete hypocrite about it. Either you have literally zero knowledge about the things you run your mouth over or you know the facts and choose to ignore them to inflate your own ego
From Janis on April 17, 2022 :: 10:59 am
I completely agree with what you wrote. I commented on a dear friends post and Facebook put me into Facebook prison for 3 days. She had written that her illness was getting worse and that a cloud was waiting for her. I replied back “you’re not going anywhere right now so you better not say that. I’ll kick your butt if you do lolol” exactly like that. I went to FB prison for bullying. OMG really? Yep. I reported so many accounts that had very sexual content as their profile pics and FB said that “it didn’t go against their standards”. The day this happened I broke up with Facebook for forever! I HATE FACEBOOK!!
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From Paul bloomfield on June 30, 2022 :: 11:50 am
I think you will find that software security picks up certain words, you’ll be able to tell how the wordings, English grammar with the reply, if you find it’s not common English, in a way like layman’s terms, you have a case to answer