Read receipts are heaven for impatient people wondering why you haven’t replied and hell for those hounded by their friends, family and work colleagues.
Regardless, they’re a pretty standard messaging feature within apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and the like. So it’s surprising that one of the early online messaging services Skype is only just adding them.
The feature has arrived on the app’s latest preview build for iOS, Android and desktop. The receipts are available in one-on-one conversations and group chats for up to 20 people. For the latter you’ll be able to see exactly which members of the conversation have seen the message and which have not.
Here’s what Microsoft says in the release notes (via Windows Central): “Read receipts let you see who’s seen your messages at a glance. When someone reads your message, their avatar appears beneath it in Skype chats enabling you to see how far someone has read in the conversation without tapping on every message.”
If you’re one of those folks who likes to reply when they’re damn well good and ready, the feature can be easily switched off in the app’s settings.
To use them at this stage, you’ll also need to be chatting with someone who also has the preview installed on their device. We’d expect this feature to roll out to the wider user base soon, but we’ll keep you posted on that front.
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Read receipts arrive as Microsoft looks to wrest some of the initiative back from Slack in the business environment. In May, Slack announced it now has a whopping 8 million daily users, up from six million since September 2017.
Has Slack taken the place of Skype as your go-to office chat app? Do you always turn off the read receipts? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.