iOS 10 tidbit: managing read receipts on a per-conversation basis

iOS 10 Read Receipts per-contact silver iPhone screenshot 001iOS 10 has a new hidden switch, called Emergency Bypass, which permits you to override your global Do Not Disturb setting on a per-contact basis. It’s especially handy for those times when you wanna enable Messages notifications for a contact that isn’t in your Favorites, even if Do Not Disturb is on.

A similar new feature in iOS 10’s Messages app makes it easy to enable or disable read receipts, which tell the other person when you’ve read an incoming text, on a per-conversation basis.

To turn sending read receipts in a chat on or off, go to Messages, open a chat and then tap the “i” icon in the top right cornet to access options. You’ll notice a new switch right underneath the Do Not Disturb toggle, labeled Send Read Receipts.

Sliding it to the OFF position will temporarily disable sending read receipts, meaning chat recipient(s) won’t be able to tell if you’ve read their texts.

This is a per-contact toggle.

Like before, you can still enable or disable sending read receipts globally in Settings → Messages → Send Read Receipts. When that switch is on, read receipts for all conversations will be enabled except for those you’ve manually disabled sending read receipts as described above.

How do you like this little improvement in iOS 10 and can you think of a few situations that would make you want to disable sending read receipts on a per-contact basis? Hit us in comments!