Read Receipts

For you to see a Read receipt to acknowledge if the recipient has read your message, they have to have that feature turned on in their phone. The setting on your iPhone will show them if you have read their message. You will not get a read receipt for an SMS, only for an iMessage.

You should see time stamps for your messages as well. Swipe to the left to see the time stamp for messages. If you are not seeing the Read receipt from the other person and they have verified they have it turned on, then try powering the iPhone off and back on again and check. You can also force closed the Messages app and then open it again to see if that helps.

If you are seeing Delivered, then they have been sent. If the person that you are sending the message to does not have Read Receipts turned on, you will not get a Read Receipt. You will not get a Read Receipt from a Group Message either.

Does this only occur for one contact, or does this occur for all Contacts when using iMessage? Try going to a message you have received from an individual that you expect the Read receipt for. After opening the message, tap on their name at the top and then tap on Info. See if the Send Read Receipts is turned on. Any other troubleshooting would require restoring your device and can be a bit of work. I will only recommend that if you are that concerned about read receipts and it is not working.

iMessage bubbles are blue, SMS message bubbles are green.