WhatsApp has the same technology, allowing the blue ticks that indicate a message has been delivered and read to be switched off. In 2015, Apple released an update that allows read messages to be turned off for everyone, or turned on for only select people. "Plenty of times have I opened a message, sending the read receipt, got distracted and then forgot to reply, and that entirely defeats the purpose of read receipts," says Carson Modrall, a 26-year-old associate attorney, who has her read receipts on for specific people. With a single swipe, a user can not only see when their buddy responded, but how much time elapsed between when they looked at the message and when they responded. By 2014, the USPS arguably took read receipts a step further by allowing people to see scans of mail that was about to be delivered to them with a service called Informed Delivery.īut the read receipt is instant. Exactly 100 years later, the USPS rolled out Certified Mail, which, as the name suggests, certified delivery by giving senders a literal receipt. In 1855, they introduced Registered Mail, which essentially would give a sender a receipt of delivery if they requested one. For more than a century, the United States Postal Service has offered read receipts in one form or another. Instead of just seeing that a message was "delivered," users could now see a timestamp of when their text had been read. Who among us has not leaned on the, "Sorry, just seeing this!" in order to save face?įor most people, the ability to know when someone had read your message arrived in 2011 with the release of iOS 5, which added read receipts to iMessage. The plausible deniability that everyone relies on once in awhile. Did your letter arrive at its destination safely? Did the messenger remember the right details? Did the answering machine record your message fully or cut it off? Did T9 completely destroy a normal thing you typed and turn it into a deranged plea because you were texting under your desk? Did that way-too-earnest email you sent get read, or was it filtered to spam? The introduction of read receipts, and with it tracking technology, removed the unknown. It is easier than ever to communicate with a person you're sleeping with, but there have never been more ways to do so, more factors to consider and more tea leaves to read.įor most of human history, communicating has contained an element of the unknown. It is easier than ever to communicate with a person you're sleeping with, but there have never been more ways to do so, more factors to consider and more tea leaves to read. Of the 20 people who spoke with Digg about the role of read receipts in their relationships, almost all admitted to having a conversation with a partner or potential partner about their texting habits. "It is a very big part of my relationship with him, but it's not a part of his relationship with me, which is just such a weird dynamic." Erin does not have her read receipts turned on for anyone. "It helped me not be so in my head about what his texting habits mean and to just focus on what he's saying. "It was such a game changer because I could see that he was texting me whenever he had his phone," she says. Then, last summer, her boyfriend had to make a trip to the Apple store, and when he returned, his read receipts had been mysteriously turned on. "Never quite blowing me off, but not super engaged or interested in dating me long-term." Was he just stuck in meetings? Or was he giving her a cold shoulder? "I used to think he was reading my texts and then just responding when he wanted," she says. Her phone is usually nearby, and she always texts back, sometimes immediately. She texted him one night, "How was dinner?" and he didn't respond until the next day around noon, but the phone tells her he just saw it, one minute before he texted back.Įarly in their relationship, she questioned whether he even liked her all that much. Erin 1 tries to be honest with her boyfriend of a little over a year about everything except for one thing: He doesn't know he has his read receipts on, and she's certainly not about to tell him.Įvery time she texts him, her iPhone tells her that her message has been delivered, and then a little later (or sometimes a lot later) it alerts her that he's read it.
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