Here's How To Know When Your WhatsApp Messages Are Read By Recipients

Whatsapp has a feature when the message sent is actually read by the recipient. (photo: unsplash)

JAKARTA - It's easy to find out if someone has read our WhatsApp messages. This is thanks to the checkmark next to each message. However, did you know that you can also check the time in a WhatsApp message to see when other people saw it?

We'll show you how to check the WhatsApp view time for your messages to give you more information.

How to See Message Read Time on WhatsApp

To see what time your WhatsApp messages were read, first open WhatsApp on your phone. Find the message you're interested in, then long press.

When you do this, new options will appear. These options differ depending on your platform. On Android, you will see a new icon in the top bar. Tap Info, which may be below the three-dot menu button in some cases. If you are using an iPhone, then you will see an option appear in the list where you tap. Select Info from the list.

This will display the sent and read times of your message. Sent is when your message arrives on someone else's device, while Read indicates when the recipient actually opened it. For more on this, make sure you understand the tick marks in WhatsApp and Telegram.

You can check the timestamp for read messages on WhatsApp like this one for one-on-one chats and group messages. In a group chat, you can see the Sent and Read times for each individual. Tap a person's name in the participant list in a group chat for more details.

Keep in mind that you can't see message read times for other people's messages, even in group chats. If the person hasn't read your message, you'll see three dots in the Read field.

However, you may run into a case where the WhatsApp message info says Read but no time is listed. In this case, the person may have turned off WhatsApp read receipts. This is one way of using WhatsApp while maintaining your privacy, as they may not want someone to know exactly when they are online.

Disabling read receipts prevents WhatsApp from showing up when you view messages. This is why there is no time, even though the message says "read." It's also possible that someone else reads your message while offline, perhaps using a trick to read the message without sending a read receipt.

You can turn off read receipts yourself by going to Settings > Account > Privacy and disabling the Read Receipts slider. However, doing this also prevents you from seeing read receipts from other people.

However, keep in mind that read receipts are always on for group chats. This means you can only hide your message reading time in one-on-one conversations.

How to See Message Read Time on WhatsApp Web

You can follow a similar process using WhatsApp Web to see what time someone reads your WhatsApp messages. Just open the relevant chat and hover your mouse over the message you are interested in. Click the small arrow that appears in the upper right corner, followed by Message info in the flyout menu.

A sidebar will open on the right side of the screen, similar to the one in the mobile app. It shows the Sent and Read times for your message. Unlike mobile apps, you can only see Read times in group chats. Delivery times will not be displayed for groups.

Remember, if the message says "read" but doesn't have a timestamp, someone else may have disabled read receipts. If no read time is shown for anyone, make sure your own read receipts are enabled for this to work in the future.

WhatsApp Reading Time Gives You More Information

While you may not care about the exact timestamp for WhatsApp messages all the time, knowing exactly when someone reads your WhatsApp messages can be useful in some situations. For example, you may want to make sure that your loved ones arrive at their destination safely.