WhatsApp is a social media messaging service with over three billion monthly active users. Every person with access to an internet connection, smartphone, and friends has to have a WhatsApp account. One use of WhatsApp is it allows users worldwide to text and even talk on video/audio calls with no additional charges, just an internet connection. You can immediately connect with anyone worldwide if you have their phone number and an internet connection! Isn’t that so convenient?
And this is the least of what WhatsApp offers to its users, and we cannot stress this enough, for free! Even Snapchat has released a Snapchat plus subscription for patron users, but WhatsApp has never monetized or exploited its users in any way whatsoever.
For example, WhatsApp never added advertisements of any kind on the app. It also has no time-wasting features like Instagram’s Explore, Snapchat’s Discover and Spotlight, or Facebook’s Watch.
It also provides its users with the best security and privacy to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience. You must have their phone number to appear on someone’s WhatsApp account.
Other than adding someone, WhatsApp will also let you choose who can see your display picture, bio, last seen, online status, and WhatsApp status updates. Blocking, reporting, muting, and archiving are also quite simple and convenient and do not notify the user in any way.
Today, we’ll discuss a convenient feature on WhatsApp: read receipts. Our topic for today is why you cannot see a user on your WhatsApp story viewers’ list, even though you know they’ve seen it.
Why Can’t I See Someone’s Name in Viewer List Even if They Viewed My Whatsapp Status?
First, let’s discuss your initial question: why can’t you see a user’s name in your story viewers’ list on WhatsApp, although you know they’ve seen your status update? There are two answers to this question: they’ve not seen their status or turned their read receipts off.
We know the first possible answer is a bit redundant, but it’s still something you should consider. After all, how many times have you been in a misunderstanding?
We’re guessing it’s more times than you can count. So, you should consider that they might’ve seen it on a mutual friend’s phone, or they’re just lying about it.
But if they aren’t, there’s only one other answer: they’ve turned off their read receipts on WhatsApp. It’s one of the most loved privacy features on the platform, so it shouldn’t be a big surprise.
If you’re wondering what this feature is, how it works, and how to use it, just read on!
What are read receipts on WhatsApp?
Whenever you send a message to someone on WhatsApp, you can always tell if it’s been delivered or read, right? In fact, you can also check out the exact time when the message was delivered and read.
So, a clock icon at the message’s bottom right means the message hasn’t been sent and suggests an internet connection problem. one grey tick signifies that the message has been sent from your side.
Two grey ticks indicate that their phone has received the message, and they’ve most probably gotten the notification. And lastly, two blue ticks mean that your message has been read.
These small tidbits of info regarding the status of your messages are called read receipts.
Why do users turn them off?
In the beginning, this looked like a fascinating and convenient feature. However, with time, many users realized that this feature gives birth to more problems than they solve.
Although not everyone agreed with this assessment, not everyone needed to. Only a small fraction of unsatisfied users is enough to create a widespread issue in the future.
Admittedly, the idea behind read receipts was not a bad one. It was useful to know if our messages were going through.
For example, let’s say you’re hosting an office party. You remember one important item last minute and have to tell your co-worker to take care of it. You don’t have the time to call them, but you must ensure they won’t forget it. In such case, you only need to text them, “forgot the cupcakes- please pick up at 10 am from Panaderia de Picasso.”
Of course, you cannot wait for them to reply, but you can check if they’ve seen the message. This feature turned out to be quite beneficial for you here, don’t you think?
But now, let’s see what the cons of this feature are. For starters, read receipts are a huge invasion of privacy; no one can do anything on WhatsApp without everyone in their network knowing about it.
It was a big issue for people who like their privacy and don’t like their every move watched, if only by close friends and family.
Let’s say you’ve had the most hectic day at work and cannot wait to go home and crash on your bed immediately. In the middle of the day, your unemployed childhood best friend says they have some hot gossip to share and want to talk to you.
Of course, you’re dead tired and absolutely not interested in talking about anything, let alone trash talk about those you don’t know. You’ll need to do some deep thinking to say this to them delicately, so it’s impossible for you right now.
But since you’ve seen the message, they’ll know about it. From their perspective, you’ve ignored their message and are just plain rude. To prevent any such misunderstandings and for an overall improved user experience, this feature was introduced, and it has been going pretty well.
When you turn off read receipts, users will only ever see two grey ticks on their messages sent to you. They’ll never know if you’ve seen their messages. That being said, when you reply, they’ll know you’ve seen it.
Another effect of read receipts is that your name will not appear in other users’ status updates list. You can see their stories all you want without them ever knowing it.
However, this goes both ways. You also won’t be able to tell if others have seen your messages, nor will you be able to access your story viewers list. Pretty fair, won’t you agree?
So, now you know what read receipts are and their pros and cons. Let’s now move on to the star of the show!
Here’s how to turn off read receipts on WhatsApp
Step 1: Open WhatsApp and tap on a three floating dots icon at the top right.
Step 2: On the drop-down menu, tap on the last option, Settings. Next, tap on the second field on Settings, called Privacy.
Step 3: You’ll see an option called Read receipts with a toggle button next to it. Turn it off.
There you go! Now you can say goodbye to all WhatsApp-created drama.
Takeaway
As we’ve reached the end of our blog, we’ll now recap all our discussions for today.
WhatsApp status updates are quite a fun feature to share your life updates with friends and family. However, nothing is perfect; you might get confused when people reply to your story, but you can’t see them in your story viewers’ list.
The answer is quite simple: these users have turned off read receipts. It’s quite a handy feature for those who like their privacy and keeping to themselves. If you haven’t heard about it yet, we’ve discussed exactly what these are, how they work, their pros and cons, and how to turn them off.
If you’re still confused about this topic, we’d love to sort it out in the comments section below!
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