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Telegram is fantastic with the glaring exception of mandatory read receipts.

Am I the only one that can't stand having people know when I've read their messages? It seems like every major chat platform (except for iMessage) has read receipts enabled without any option to disable them. Why has this become so popular?




> Why has this become so popular?

It settles the age old question of "Hey, did you get my message?". Many people like this functionality.


I'm more than happy to show "delivered reciepts" since that covers the question of whether the message arrived.

I prefer to be able to read and reply later if I want to without feeling guilty that it'll look like I just couldn't be bothered. I mean, it's true, I couldn't be bothered, I just don't want to broadcast that fact :p


If you're on android, read the messages in the popup status window, it'll leave it "unread" until you open the conversation. You might need to enable the preview function for popups and/or popups for out to work. Kind of works unless someone sends a massive amount of messages/text.


Also, it seems to be missing an obvious way to export your message history? Am I missing something or does anyone know if this is on the todo list?

Having said that I really like it and am encouraging my group to switch to test it out.

I wonder how effective that will be: "The Inertia ... the inertia" (said in full-on Marlon Brando Apocalypse Now voice)


Almost certainly because it increases engagement. By optimizing purely on metrics, psychologically undesirable effects creep in (guilt, in this case). c.f. online gaming apps and their addiction inducing behaviour.


Everyone I talk to on Telegram understands I might read their message at one moment and respond later (or not at all). It's not an issue for me.




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