How To Disable Facebook Read Receipts

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Want to pretend you didn’t get that message through Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s site or app? It’s possible to keep people from knowing that you read their Facebook message, although it requires a sort of roundabout way of doing it. Facebook doesn’t actually allow users to shut off read receipts, so it must be done outside of the social network.

How To Disable Facebook Read Receipts

Facebook’s pesky read notifications

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone allows users to turn off the feature that tells contacts when they have read their message. However, Facebook places a time stamp or at the very least a date on when users read each of their messages, making it impossible to just pretend like you just didn’t get that annoying message on Facebook.

However, it turns out that it’s not impossible to keep people from knowing that you’ve ready their Facebook messages. According to Business Insider‘s Jillian D’Onfro, there is a way to disable those annoying read receipts outside of Facebook.

Doesn’t work with all Facebook messages

She said this method doesn’t work with Facebook messages read through the mobile app, but it is possible to disable them on the desktop. The tips on how to shut off read receipts originally come from LifeHacker.

One way to shut off those read receipts on Facebook is by using the free Facebook app Unseen. It’s an extension of Google Chrome that has some excellent reviews. The way it works is very simple. Users simply mark each one of their messages as unread or read by hand.

Another option is the Facebook app Unseenly. Upon installation, read receipts on Facebook are disabled. AdBlock Plus can also help users disable read receipts. According to LifeHacker, adding a custom filter to AdBlock Plus will block read receipts on Facebook without the need to install another app or Chrome extension.

The website also has some suggestions for blocking read receipts on other platforms, including Snapchat, iOS / iMessage, Kik, and Viber.

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