Read receipts are a great way to know when someone has received and read your text messages, but they’re a double-edged sword – not only can it be annoying to get frequent notifications that your messages are read, but you also might not want other people to know if you have received or read their messages.

Ordinary SMS text messages only have the ability to send notifications about the delivery of the message, while MMS multimedia messages can also inform the sender when the message has been opened and read.

If you prefer to disable some or all of these read receipts, they are easy to turn off.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $899.99 at Best Buy)

How to turn off read receipts on a Samsung Galaxy

1. Start the Messages app.

2. Tap the three dots to open the pop-up menu.

receipt 1

Foto: Open the Messages app's menu by tapping the three dots.sourceDave Johnson/Business Insider

3. Tap "Settings."

4. In the Messages Settings screen, tap "More settings."

5. Tap "Text messages."

6. Turn off "Delivery reports" by swiping the button to the left.

receipt 2

Foto: You can toggle delivery notifications for both incoming and outgoing messages using the Delivery reports setting.sourceDave Johnson/Business Insider

7. Tap the Back button to go to the previous screen.

8. Tap "Multimedia messages."

9. Turn off "Delivery reports" by swiping the button to the left.

10. Also turn off "Read reports" in the same way.

receipt 3

Foto: You can separately control notifications about delivery and read reports for MMS messages.sourceDave Johnson/Business Insider

After turning these settings off, you will no longer receive read receipts, and anyone you text will not get those notifications either.

Related coverage from How To Do Everything: Tech: