It has ever happened to all of us that a person speaks to us on WhatsApp, but for whatever reason we don’t want them to know that we have read their message. It could be because we’re busy and don’t want to spark a conversation, or simply because you have an answer to think of and you don’t want him to think you’re brushing it off.
Luckily, for these occasions, several tricks can help you read a message without your contact knowing that you have done so. Today we are going to explain the three simplest so that you do not have to complicate your life. There are three ways to do it, taking advantage of the possibilities of any smartphone or the configuration of the application itself.
Use the notification bar
The first of the three methods is as simple as tapping into the notification bar and can be done on both Android and iOS. Of course, it will only help you when they send you one or two messages, because if there are several, the previews of this bar may no longer be enough to show all the texts.
It is simply that when you receive a WhatsApp you read it directly through the preview of the notification bar. On Android, press the bar and slide it down with your finger, and once the notifications of all your applications are displayed, slide from the WhatsApp message to complete. In iOS, simply swipe to show the entire bar, and all the messages received in WhatsApp will appear.
Pay close attention to the fact that you do not have to press the message itself, because doing so would open the application and, when it detects you within it, WhatsApp will notify your contact that you have read it.
Use airplane mode, but don’t trust yourself too much
Another classic trick is to use airplane mode or simply disable your mobile connections, both 3G or 4G and WiFi. With this, when you do not have a connection on your WhatsApp device, it will not be able to detect you within the application, so it will not send any read notifications while you are offline.
Of course, if you are going to do this you have to take one thing into account, one important thing. You can safely use WhatsApp offline, but as soon as you remove airplane mode and your phone reconnects to the Internet, WhatsApp will immediately detect that you have connected to the message and will tell your contact that you have read it.
Therefore this is a half solution since it is only effective during the time that your mobile is offline. Even so, it is something very simple to do, so it can be useful in cases where you want to read the entire conversation that has been sent to you and take your time to respond correctly without being rushed.
Disable read receipt
But if what you want is that no one else knows at any time when you have read or not a message, the most definitive measure is to go to the WhatsApp settings and permanently disable read receipts. In this way, in any conversation you have, the double-blue check will appear again. You can start by displaying the menu that will appear when you press the three points in the upper right and choose the Settings option.
Once there, first, choose the Account option, and enter the Privacy menu. In it, you will see several parameters to adjust, such as who can see the last time you connected or your avatar. At the bottom, you will see a Read Receipt option, which has a box that you have to have blank if you want no one to see a blue double-check again when you read their messages.
This is undoubtedly the most definitive and secure solution to prevent anyone from knowing that you have read their messages. But you have to keep in mind that WhatsApp will tell your contacts when you are writing, something that could reveal that you are in front of the mobile. It is also interesting that you deactivate the option to show the last time you connected in the privacy options because with it activated your contacts will know if you have used WhatsApp after they have sent you the message.
Widgets and third-party applications
There are other methods with which you can also read what is written to you by WhatsApp without the other person knowing it, but they are no longer so extremely simple. The three alternatives that we have told you are much easier, we are not going to dwell on them too much, but we are going to mention them in case you want to take them into account.
The first of these other methods is available for Android and is to use WhatsApp Widgets. Each customization layer has its mechanics, but in general, you can insert a Widget by holding your finger on one of your desktops to display some options in which they are included. WhatsApp has three, one of which will show you what people are writing to you.
It’s something similar to reading it from the notifications, but you don’t have to slide anything. Just go to the desktop that has the Widget and read. Of course, do not click on it because then the application will open and then the other person will know that you have read.
And you also have the alternative of using third-party applications like Shh. What they do is show you WhatsApp notifications in a way where you can read them all as if you were in the app itself. But they are still notifications, so when looking at them in the WhatsApp application it does not detect that you have read the message.
Of course, there is one thing that you have to be clear about when downloading these third-party applications, and that is that you must be extremely careful and look for all the information you can before downloading it in search of possible fraud or errors. You also have to look at the data that you will want to access and avoid those that ask you to know things that they do not need, such as access to your camera or geo position.
Sharlene Meriel is an avid gamer with a knack for technology. He has been writing about the latest technologies for the past 5 years. His contribution in technology journalism has been noteworthy. He is also a day trader with interest in the Forex market.
