Glossary

Read receipt

Also called: Seen indicator, Read indicator

A read receipt is a signal in a messaging app that tells the sender their message has been opened on the recipient's device. It usually appears as a word like “Seen” or “Read”, or as a change in a tick icon.

Reviewed September 24, 2026

Sent, delivered and read are three different things

The usual message states in chat apps

State	What it means	What it doesn't mean
Sent	The server accepted your message	That it reached their phone
Delivered	It arrived on their device	That they looked at it
Read / Seen	The chat was opened with your message on screen	That they took it in, or will reply soon

Sent: What it means:The server accepted your message; What it doesn't mean:That it reached their phone

Delivered: What it means:It arrived on their device; What it doesn't mean:That they looked at it

Read / Seen: What it means:The chat was opened with your message on screen; What it doesn't mean:That they took it in, or will reply soon

Apps show these states differently: one tick and two ticks, ticks that change color, a tiny avatar under the last message, or the word “Seen” with a time. The meaning is the same.

In a group chat, receipts usually become a list of who has seen the message, which is handy for “did everyone see the venue changed?” and awkward for everything else.

What a read receipt does not prove

Example: you send “Can you cover my shift Saturday?” at 9 p.m. It shows as seen at 9:02 and there's no reply until morning. That usually means they were checking their calendar or asleep — not ignoring you.

Why some people would rather not show them

They create pressure to answer immediately, even when a considered reply would be better.
They make it visible when someone chooses not to reply, which can turn a pause into a conflict.
In many apps the setting is reciprocal: if you hide your read receipts, you stop seeing other people's too.

Groups that agree norms up front — “reply when you can, call if it's urgent” — take most of the sting out. More ideas in how to keep a group chat useful.

On Asyncbit

Asyncbit chats show read receipts and typing indicators, in 1:1 chats (which need a mutual follow) and in group chats of 3–50 people. A separate show-online setting hides your online status and last seen. Because push notifications for messages stay generic (“New message”), the text doesn't appear on your lock screen. Messages are encrypted at rest on Asyncbit's servers, not end-to-end encrypted. More on how Asyncbit messaging works.

See it for yourself

Asyncbit is free, with no paid tier and no ads. Everything described here is available from the first day.