You’ve probably noticed that whenever you send a text via iMessage, you receive a “Delivered” notification right underneath your message.
So, what does “Delivered” mean on iPhones?
Receiving this notification will only happen if you have enabled the Delivery Report feature on your iPhone.
The “Delivered” notification means that your text message or iMessage has successfully been sent to the recipient’s device, and that Apple has not encountered any problems with sending the message to the recipient.
However, this does not necessarily mean that it has been received on the recipient’s phone- nor that the recipient has read the message!
What Does It Mean If The iMessage Was “Delivered” But Not “Read”?
The iMessage app allows Apple users to customize their read receipts, though they are enabled by default.
If you send an iMessage to another iPhone user, you can easily monitor its status by looking at the gray block under the message. You will either see “Sent,” “Delivered,” or “Read”.
If your iPhone notifies you that your iMessage was “Delivered” but not “Read”, it means that the recipient never read your message or that they deleted the message before even opening it.
iMessage also allows users to enable read receipts for specific contacts and disable read receipts for others.
Thus, if your iMessage was “Delivered” but not “Read”, it could be because the recipient has disabled their “Send read receipts” setting.
Many people choose to disable this feature to maintain their privacy.
In these situations, your iMessage will only say “Delivered”- even if they have read your message!
Read receipts also do not work when you are sending a message to a recipient who does not have an iPhone.
If you send an iMessage from your iPhone to another iPhone, there will be a blue-colored bubble in the chat window.
However, when you send a message from your iPhone to a recipient who does not have an iPhone, then the bubble in the chat window will be green instead!
Does “Delivered” Go Away When A Message Is Read?
The “Delivered” status on your iPhone will go away if:
- The message was sent via iMessage, and
- The message was successfully received and read by the recipient.
Once the recipient opens and reads your message on iMessage, the status will change from “Delivered” to “Read”. In this instance, the “Delivered” status disappears.
However, if a recipient has disabled their read receipts, the “Delivered” status in gray below your message will not disappear.
It will remain even if they have read your message; you won’t be able to tell when or if they did read your message at some point!
iPhone users can choose to enable all their read receipts, disable read receipts for specific contacts, or even disable all read receipts with exceptions.
Let’s take a look at how to enable and disable your read receipts:
To enable all of your read receipts
Go to Settings > Messages. Then, toggle on Send Read Receipts.
To turn off read receipts for specific contacts
Go to your Messages and open the conversation with the person you want to disable read receipts.
Click on the person’s profile picture at the top and tap on the Info icon. Finally, toggle off Send Read Receipts.
If you want to disable all read receipts with exceptions
Go to your Settings > Messages and toggle off Send Read Receipts.
Then, open your Messages and select the conversation of the person you want to enable to read receipts for.
Go to their profile picture and click on the Info icon. Finally, toggle on Send Read Receipts.
Related Questions
Does “Delivered” on the iPhone mean you are not blocked?
If your iMessage never displays a “Delivered” or “Read” message and the bubble is still blue, then you may have been blocked.
Vice versa: If your iMessage goes through and shows the “Delivered” status, then you have not been blocked.
What does it mean when there is no “Delivered” text in iMessage?
If you cannot see the “Delivered” status in your iMessage, then it means that your message has not been delivered yet.
This could be because the recipient’s phone is switched off, if you have insufficient Wi-Fi or data coverage, or when the recipient has blocked you on iMessage.
There is another possible reason why your iMessages aren’t being delivered.
When the recipient has moved from an iPhone to another device, they do not delete their phone number from Apple’s iMessage servers.
If they have shifted to another operating system such as Android, your message won’t state that it’s been delivered even after a few hours or days.
iMessages often queues these types of messages until they can be delivered.
How can you know if someone blocked your number on your iPhone?
If you’ve been blocked on your iPhone (by another iPhone), your iMessages will never show the “Delivered” status, and your SMS’s will not be sent or delivered.
Another common sign of being blocked is if you try to call the recipient’s phone and it rings once and then disconnects or goes straight to voicemail.
Will an iMessage say “Delivered” if the recipient’s phone is off?
No. An iMessage will not show that a message has been delivered unless the recipient’s phone is switched on.
The iMessage will only go through and say “Delivered” if the recipient has more than one Apple device enabled with iMessage.
What does it mean when you send an iMessage, and it says “Not Delivered” in red?
“Not Delivered” in red simply means that your message failed to go through!
There are several reasons as to why you could be experiencing this.
However, the two most common reasons are either that the recipient’s phone is switched off, or that they are out of their cellular network range.
In Summary
When an iPhone says “Delivered,” it means that at least one of the recipient’s iCloud registered devices has successfully received your message.
If the recipient’s phone is switched off, or either one of you has an inadequate internet connection, the service will not be able to deliver the message.
iMessage also allows iPhone users to see if your message has been read- unless the recipient has disabled their read receipts, of course.
I hope that this article has helped to answer your questions surrounding iMessage read receipts, and provided you with more clarity with regard to iPhone messages in general!