What Does 'Read Receipt' Mean?

[ PRESENCE MACHINES ][ MACHINE CULTURE ]

FORCE: Machine CultureUNIVERSE: IM and MySpace CultureCLUSTER: Presence Machines

A messaging feature that notifies the sender when their message has been opened and viewed by the recipient, transforming the simple act of reading a message into a visible, timestamped social signal.

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE

"The read receipt showed she saw it an hour ago and still hasn't replied."

LORE & ORIGIN

Became a standard messaging platform feature by the early 2010s as apps like iMessage and WhatsApp added read confirmation, creating an entirely new category of communication anxiety around the gap between reading and responding.

FIRST SEEN

2011

PEAK POPULARITY

2026 (Presence Machines Canon)

CURRENT STATUS

Legacy / Decaying Slang

阅读中文版 →日本語版を読む →한국어판 보기 →Leer en español →Ler em português →Lire en français →

EQUIVALENT CONCEPTS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

中文 zh-CN已读回执 →日本語 ja-JP既読通知 →한국어 ko-KR읽음 확인 →Español es-ESread receipt →Português pt-BRread receipt →Français fr-FRread receipt →

AURA IMPACT ⓘ

+1 AURA

TREND STATUS

↑ HIGH RISING FAST · LOW

CULTURE CATEGORY

[ PRESENCE MACHINES ][ MACHINE CULTURE ]

RELATED TERMS

MENTIONS OVER TIME

2023202420252026

TOP PLATFORMS

TikTok

38%

YouTube

22%

Twitter / X

18%

14%

Others

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