How to Enable or Disable Microsoft Teams Read Receipts

To enable or disable Microsoft Teams read receipts on a work or school account, open Settings and more (...) > Settings > Chats and channels, then change Read receipts. Your organization can control whether you are allowed to change this setting. Mobile and personal accounts use different menus, explained below.

Turn read receipts on or off on desktop or web

1. Open Teams and select Settings and more (...) beside your profile picture.
2. Select Settings, then Chats and channels.
3. Find Read receipts and switch it on or off.

This is the current path in Microsoft's work and school instructions. Older guides that send everyone to Privacy do not reflect the current documented menu.

Change read receipts on iPhone or Android

In the Teams mobile app, tap your profile picture, open Settings > General, and change Read receipts. If you switch organizations on your phone, check the setting for the organization you are currently using.

Using Teams with a personal account?

For personal use, Microsoft documents Settings > Chats > Read receipts instead. On mobile, start with your profile picture; on desktop, start with Settings and more. Follow the personal-account instructions if your menus do not match the work or school steps.

Personal-account receipts are enabled by default. Participants must have receipts enabled for messages to be counted as seen. Turning yours on does not override another person's preference.

See who has read your message

A Seen indicator identifies a read message; a sent confirmation alone does not. In a work or school group chat with 20 people or fewer, open your message's More options (...) > Read by menu to see available confirmations. You do not need to wait for everyone before checking that list.

For personal-account chats, the desktop command is also Read by. On mobile, touch and hold the message and select Seen by.

These are chat receipts, not a reader list for channel posts. A Seen indicator also is not proof that someone understood a request or agreed to complete it. If you need acknowledgment of an assignment or deadline, ask for a reply.

How administrators control read receipts

For organizational accounts, read receipts are part of messaging policies. A team owner's title alone should not be treated as permission to edit organization-wide policy; contact the administrator responsible for Teams settings.

An authorized administrator can open the Teams admin center, go to Messaging policies, select the relevant policy, and choose Edit. Change Read receipts, then select Save. Microsoft's messaging policy documentation describes three choices:

Check which policy applies to the affected user before editing Global. Users normally inherit the global policy unless a custom one is assigned. To enforce the same enabled behavior throughout the organization, Microsoft says all messaging policies must use the same receipt setting, or the organization must use only the global policy.

Why read receipts may be missing

• The switch is unavailable: ask IT to check your assigned messaging policy. Reinstalling Teams will not give you permission to override it.
• Only some people show as readers: another participant may have receipts disabled. Microsoft also says you will not see receipts from someone outside your organization.
• Someone read a notification: notification previews, banner replies, and the Activity feed do not trigger receipts. The recipient must be active in the chat window.
• The conversation is too large or is a channel: the documented organizational feature covers one-on-one chats and group chats of up to 20 people.
• An administrator just changed a policy: allow the change to synchronize. Microsoft notes that a reboot may be needed in some cases.

If you contact support, include the account type, chat type, participant count, and whether the setting is missing or simply producing no confirmations. That helps distinguish a policy restriction from an unsupported conversation or a client issue.