How to enable/disable Microsoft Teams read receipts
Microsoft Teams supports text-based messages. You can send these messages to multiple people over a group, or you can send a message to a single member of your team via one-on-one chat.
As with most apps that support chat messaging, Microsoft Teams has read receipts. These receipts allow users to view if a message they’ve sent has been read by the recipient. In a channel, users can see which members have read the message.
Microsoft Teams read receipts
Microsoft Teams read receipts work on both the web and desktop, and the mobile apps. They are a form of passive acknowledgment where a user doesn’t have to react to a message to tell the sender it has been read.
It does have its downside; as far as Microsoft Teams (or any other app with read receipts) is concerned, a message read if the app is active in the foreground, and the channel is selected. The user may have something else open, or they may be on a different tab in the channel, or just switching between apps but the message will be marked as read.
Enable/Disable Microsoft Teams read receipts
Read receipts in Microsoft Teams are enabled/disabled on a per-app basis. This means you can set them differently for each platform that you use the app on.
Microsoft Teams admin
To enable or disable read receipts for a team as a team admin, follow these steps.
- Visit the Microsoft Teams admin center.
- Click Messaging Policies in the column on the left.
- Select the Global policy.
- Open the Read Receipts dropdown and turn read receipts On or Off, or allow the user to choose to enable or disable them.
Web/desktop/Windows 10/macOS
To enable/disable read receipts in Microsoft Teams from the web or desktop apps (Windows 10 or macOS), follow these steps.
- Open Microsoft Teams.
- Click your profile icon at the top right.
- Select Settings from the menu.
- Go to the Privacy tab.
- Turn the Read receipts switch On or Off.
Mobile/iOS/Android
To enable/disable read receipts in Microsoft Teams from the mobile apps (iOS or Android), follow these steps.
- Open Microsoft Teams.
- Tap the profile icon at the top left.
- From the navigation drawer, select Settings.
- Go to Messaging and turn the Read receipts switch On or Off.
View read receipts in Microsoft Teams
You only get read receipts once everyone in the channel has read your message. When they have, you can click the more options button at the top right of a message and click the eye icon or the Read by option.
Microsoft Teams admin may choose to turn read receipts off for all users. In that case, you will have to ask your admin to enable them for the team before you can enable them in the app.
Note: This feature may temporarily have been turned off by Microsoft Teams. Check the Message Center for information regarding the feature if it isn’t working or if you cannot see the option to view read receipts. Users have reported problems getting read receipts to work.
Conclusion
Read receipts are rather complicated to manage if you’re a team admin or owner. Unless the feature has caused problems, you should generally allow users to enable or disable read receipts at their own discretion.
