Iron Messenger
To see who read your message in a Telegram group, tap your own message: the top row of the menu shows how many people saw it, and a tap on that row opens their names. Telegram shows this list only in groups of up to 100 members, and only for 7 days after you sent the message. WhatsApp shows readers in its message Info, and Iron Messenger shows them in groups of up to 500, for as long as the message exists.
How do I see who read my message in a Telegram group?
The list lives in the message menu, and only the sender can open it. The steps at the time of writing (October 2026):
- Android: tap your own message in the group. iPhone: touch and hold it. Telegram Desktop: right-click it.
- Look at the top of the menu, above Reply and Copy. If somebody read the message, there is a row with a double tick, a number and a few small avatars, for example "5 seen".
- Tap that row. Telegram opens the list of members who saw the message. A member who left a reaction shows it in the same list.
You cannot open this list for somebody else's message. You can see who read your messages, and other members can see who read theirs. Telegram does not show a "read by everybody" mark in a group either: the second tick turns on when the first member reads the message.
The opposite question, "can the author see that I read it?": in a group of up to 100, yes, for a week.
Why can't I see who read my message in Telegram?
If the menu has no "seen" row, one of these is the reason:
- The group has more than 100 members. Telegram does not keep per-member reads in big groups. You see the ticks, but no names.
- The message is older than 7 days. Telegram deletes group read receipts after a week, to protect privacy (its 2021 announcement says so). After that, nobody can see the names, not even the sender.
- It is a channel post. A channel post shows a view counter (the eye icon), never the names of the people who read it.
- It is not your message. The menu shows the row only on messages that you sent.
- Nobody has read it yet. One tick means that the message is on Telegram's server, and nobody opened the chat past it.
In a big Telegram group there is only one workaround: ask people to react. A thumbs-up from each reader, or a quick poll with one option, gives you a list of names that does not expire after a week.
Your group has 101 members? In Iron Messenger, "Seen by" works in groups of up to 500 and keeps the names for as long as the message exists.
How do I see when somebody read my message in Telegram?
In a one-on-one Telegram chat, two ticks mean that the other person read your message. Since the January 2024 update, Telegram also shows when: tap or hold your message, and the menu shows the read time at the top.
The time is hidden if one of you turned it off. The switch is in Settings → Privacy and Security → Last Seen & Online, and it is called Hide Read Time. It works both ways: if you hide your read time, you also cannot see the read time of other people. Telegram Premium is the exception. A Premium user can hide their own read time and still see the read time of people who did not hide it. The two ticks still turn on in any case; the setting hides only the time.
What about WhatsApp and Threads?
WhatsApp shows readers in every group. Long-press your message and tap Info (the "i" icon; on an iPhone you can also swipe the message to the left). The Info screen has two lists: "Read by", with the time each member read it, and "Delivered to", for those who received it but did not open it. In a group, the ticks turn blue only when everybody has read the message. The read receipts setting in WhatsApp's privacy menu turns them off in private chats only, so in a group your reads are always visible.
Threads is a different kind of app. It is Meta's feed of public posts, a rival of X, not of Telegram. A Threads post shows likes, replies and reposts, but never a list of the people who saw it. Threads added direct messages in July 2025, but a group with a shared chat and a channel with subscribers are still Telegram's ground. So "Threads vs Telegram" is a choice between a public feed and a messenger. For two messengers side by side, read our comparison of Iron Messenger with Telegram and WhatsApp.
| Telegram | Iron Messenger | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Who read it, in a group | Groups of up to 100 | Every group | Groups of up to 500 (the size limit) |
| How long the names stay | 7 days | As long as the message | As long as the message |
| Sign-up needs a phone number | Yes | Yes | No: a username and an email |
Stop asking "did everyone see it?" in the group. Iron Messenger tells you who did, with no phone number needed to join.
Which messenger shows who read your message in a big group?
If your group is under 100 people and you need the answer only this week, Telegram is enough. If your group is bigger, or you want to check who saw an announcement from last month, Telegram cannot tell you. WhatsApp can, but every member then needs a phone number, and their read time is always visible.
Iron Messenger sits between the two. Tap your message, tap "Seen by", and you get every reader, newest first, in groups of up to 500 members, free on every tier. The names stay for as long as the message exists. The read time stays for 7 days, and only for readers whose last seen is open, so a member who wants privacy still has it. Our guide see who read your message in a group chat shows every detail, including comments under channel posts, and how privacy works in Iron Messenger explains Ghost mode.
The honest limits: Iron Messenger runs on Android, Windows and the web, with no iPhone app, no calls and no end-to-end encryption (messages are protected in transit with HTTPS and stored on our server). Sign-up takes a username and an email, or a Google account. Groups and channels hold up to 500 members, and the member limit post explains why. If you want to bring a Telegram channel over, start with how to start a channel.
Questions people ask
How do I see who read my message in a Telegram group?
In Telegram, tap or long-press your own message in a group, then tap the row with the double tick at the top of the menu. It works only in groups of up to 100 members and for 7 days; Iron Messenger shows the same list in groups of up to 500 with no 7-day limit.
Why can't I see who read my message in Telegram?
Telegram shows readers only in groups of up to 100 members, only for 7 days after sending, and never on channel posts. Iron Messenger, a free messenger for Android, Windows and the web, keeps its "Seen by" list for as long as the message exists, in groups of up to 500.
Can I see who read my message in a WhatsApp group?
Yes. In WhatsApp, long-press your message and tap Info to see "Read by" with a time for each member, and group read receipts cannot be turned off. Iron Messenger shows a similar "Seen by" list with no phone number needed, and a reader can hide their read time.
Threads vs Telegram: which one is for group chats?
Threads is Meta's feed of public posts with direct messages, and Telegram is a messenger with groups and channels, so for group chats Telegram is the closer fit. Iron Messenger is a simpler alternative to Telegram for groups and channels of up to 500 members, with no phone number needed.
