Read receipts is a feature that notify a sender that his sent text message or iMessage has be opened and read by the recipient.
However, as a recipient, it is not very often that one will want the sender to find out that his sent text has been read especially when you don’t fancy disabling or turning off read receipts.
What is the solution to this?
And this brings about the question of the day.
How to read an imessage without opening it
To read an iMessage without opening it, kindly use the notification preview to read all the received iMessages on your iPhone.
This is simply the best way to read iMessages without opening it and I tell you that the sender will never see read simply because you didn’t open the received iMessages.
Now let me guide you the two best methods to read an imessage without opening it on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or the Apple watch.
Let’s proceed to that.
1.1. By Using Notification preview
This is my best method to read iMessages, sms text messages, whatsapp messages, etc without opening the message as long as it has a read receipt feature.
This method is simply the best because if someone send tons of messages to your phone, you will read all of them on the notification preview.
Mind you, viewing messages on notification preview doesn’t show read.
Getting Started:
If you received an iMessage on your iPhone and definitely it will show up on your notifications or notification preview, all you have to do is to pull down the notification bar and you will see the messages as shown in the picture below.
Now tap on the first notification and it will show all the notifications including the iMessages you received.
If there are tons of other notifications along with iMessage, you have to scroll down to read the iMessages yoi received on your iPhone.
Once you’re doing this, please be very careful as not to tap and open the received iMessages.
Why I’m saying this is because if you make a mistake by tapping on any of the received iMessages while scrolling through the messages and notifications, the message will be opened in the message app.
Thie will immediately show read on the side of the sender’s message app.
So while going through the notifications you received on your iPhone, please do not tap on any of the received iMessages.
Why I prefer this method is because you can go through the messages you received on your iPhone without opening the messages or opening the message app.
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For example.
You received 20 iMessages on your iPhone and which you don’t want the sender to know that you have opened and read the iMessages.
All you have to do is to pull down to display the first notification if you are using ios 16 and above, then tap on the first notification and it will show all the notifications.
Go through the notifications and by doing so, you will read all the received iMessages on your iPhone without opening them. This will never trigger read receipts unless you tap on any of the messages in the notification panel as it will be opened in the message app.
Once this happens, it will show read on the side of the sender.
1.2. Message previewing in the message app
This is the second method to read iMessages without opening it though it may not neccesarily show all the entire received messages.
This works great if you received few iMessages on your iPhone.
To read an imessage without opening it on your iPhone, kindly open the Messages app on your iPhone and locate the sender or the messages.
Without opening the sender’s conversation, press hold on the sender’s contact in your iPhone message app and it will display the most recent conversation you had with the sender along with new messages from the sender.
Below is a typical example of how it will look like.
By doing so, you can read all the received messages from the sender.
However, this method has a major disadvantages.
And that is;
You can’t see all the whole messages if they are so much.
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For example.
You received 30 messages from a particular sender on your iPhone and which you want to read the messages without opening it so as not to trigger read receipts.
Using this very method will only show a maximum of 15 messages unless you scroll through and this method doesn’t have the option to scroll through message preview.
This is why the first option is way better compared to this very method unless you received a small number of iMessages.
But if they are many, I recommend you to use the first method and you will go through all the messages without opening them.
So these are the methods I have for you on how to read an imessage without opening it on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or the Apple watch.
The main reason why this question is raised is because you wouldn’t want to trigger read receipt when you receive a message on your iPhone.
However, you can go as far as to turn off read receipts on your iPhone or Apple device.
This only requires you to open the Settings App, and scroll down to Messages.
Open Message and right there you will be presented with lots of options, please scroll down to Send Read Receipts and turn it off as shown in the picture below.
Once you have turned off read receipts on your iPhone, the sender will never know that you have opened and read the iMessages.
Asking can I read an iPhone message without opening it, kindly know that the answer is yes as long as you use message preview or notification preview, you can swiftly read all messages on your iPhone without opening the message.
Does previewing imessage mark as read?
The straight answer is no. Previewing an iMessage doesn’t mark it as read as long as you didn’t open the iMessage.
Previewing an iMessage is the best way to read an imessage without opening it.
I use this a lot and from the test I carried out using my two iPhones and my friends iPhones, when you preview an iMessage it won’t show read but rather will show read if you open the iMessage.
This applies to other messages and not just iMessage.
As long as you didn’t open a message right inside the message app, it won’t show read. But once you opened a message and it takes you to the message app and display the message, it will show read on the side of the sender.
How to read a text without the sender knowing iPhone
To read a text without the sender knowing, simply turn off read receipts or use message preview and you will seamlessly read a text message without the sender receiving a read receipts notification.
Many a time people tends to turn off read receipts on their Messages app, but for me, I don’t.
Instead I use the message preview method to read all received messages on my iPhone or android phone without opening the message.
Remember, as long as the messages were not opened, it won’t trigger read receipts on the sender’s side.
In my own case I use the message preview which I have already explained above to read messages on my phone without the sender knowing.
Why I don’t like turning off read receipts is in the case of whatsapp and other instant messaging apps and services.
If you turn off read receipts on your phone or message app, it will also turn off read receipts for all contacts on your phone.
This simply means that if you send a message to someone, you won’t be able to see read or to know if the recipient has opened and read the message.
Also, the other person won’t be able to know if you have opened and read his messages.
Once you turn off read receipts on your phone, you won’t be able to see other contacts read notifications and this is very popular on whatsapp.
So far this is not the case with iMessage as you can turn off read receipts on your iPhone and see other contacts read notifications when you send a message to them.
How to turn off read receipts without opening message
You don’t need to open a message before you can turn off read receipts though it depends on the instant messaging you’re using.
To Turn off read receipts on iPhone, you simply have to open the settings app, scroll down to Messages and open it.
Now scroll down to read receipts and turn it off.
If you’re using android rcs chat message, all you need to do is to open the Messages app, tap on the hamburger menu and select settings.
Right on the next page, select chat feature and you will see Read receipts. Go ahead and turn it off on your android phone or tablet.
This also applies to whatsapp and others as you can easily turn off read receipts without opening the message.
Asking can you read a text without opening it, the answer is yes and it requires reading the texts through message preview or from the notification bar when dropped down. And with this, I come to the conclusion of the article of how to read an imessage without opening it on iPhone, iPad, Mac or the Apple watch.
