How to Mark a Message as Unread and Turn Off Read Receipts in Teams

Two small features with a big effect on your day. Mark as unread turns a message into a reminder. Read receipts decide whether other people know you've seen what they sent, and whether you can tell they've seen yours.

1. Hover over the chat in the Chat list.
2. Click ⋯ More options.
3. Choose Mark as unread.

The chat goes bold again and the unread count goes up by one. It's the Teams equivalent of leaving an email unread so you don't forget it.

You can also hover over a specific message in a chat, click ⋯ and choose Mark as unread. Everything from that message onward shows as new.

Keyboard shortcut: none for this one, but /unread in the search box lists every unread chat.

In a one-to-one chat, a small eye icon (or Seen) appears under your last message once the other person has read it. In a group chat of up to 20 people, hover over the icon to see a list of who's read it.

Read status only appears if both of you have read receipts turned on.

1. Click ⋯ Settings and more > Settings.
2. Click Privacy.
3. Switch Read receipts off.

Now nobody can see when you've read their messages, and you can't see when they've read yours. It's a trade: privacy for everyone, information for no one.

Your organisation can lock this setting on or off; if the toggle is greyed out, that's why.

Marking as unread works for "deal with this soon". For "keep this forever", hover over the message and choose ⋯ > Save, then find it later under your profile picture > Saved. For a whole chat you check daily, Pin it to the top.

Mark as unread isn't in the menu. Make sure you're hovering over a chat in the list, not a channel post. Channels don't have unread marking per message.

The eye icon never appears. One of you has read receipts off, or the group has more than 20 people.

I marked a message unread and it went back to read. Opening the chat on your phone clears it. Mark it from the device you'll be using.

⋯ > Mark as unread turns a message into a reminder; Settings > Privacy > Read receipts decides who sees what. Pick the setting you're comfortable with and remember it applies both ways.