This will be a welcome update for many IG and Facebook users.

Today, Meta has announced that you’ll soon have the option to switch off read receipts for your DMs, so you can control when “Read” and “Seen” indicators appear (or don’t) for the sender in message streams.

As you can see in this example, on Instagram, you’ll soon see a toggle to switch off read receipts, with the same also set to be expanded to Meta’s other messaging tools. So if you don’t want people to see that you’ve read their DM, you can just remove the “Seen” notification, and keep them in suspense.

Look, personally, I don’t find this to be a major issue, as most people know that you’re not always going to respond to them straight away. But for others, it can be problematic, as they can get distracted and move on to other things, then forget to reply to something for a long time, when the recipient is well aware that you’ve seen it.

That can make people feel unloved, unimportant, or just annoyed by your seeming lack of emphasis on their note. So now, you can just switch it off, and pretend like you never saw it till you reply, saving the world from a little more heartache

It’s been a much-requested addition, and many will welcome the news.

And for brands, it could also come in handy, potentially. I mean, you want to reply to customer queries ASAP, as always, but maybe, if you switch off receipts, that could help in managing expectations.

Meta says that it’s launching an initial, limited test of the new toggle, with a view to a broader roll out in the near future.