Facebook’s Messenger is one of the most popular instant messaging apps. And that’s not only because the app is a part of Facebook. When the social media giant launched Messenger as a dedicated platform for messaging people, it was expected that the app would rival other messaging platforms like WhatsApp. Facebook likely expected that the sheer volume of Facebook users would make Messenger a success.
And when we look back at it, that’s exactly what happened. To millions of Facebook users, Messenger is a go-to platform for chatting with their friends while avoiding the overwhelming number of features on Facebook.
The app is also pretty interactive and colorful, with some great customization features to enhance the messaging experience of the users.
But, for users as yet unversed with Facebook’s premier messaging app, the app might seem a bit confusing at times. Much of such confusion about the Messenger application revolves around message delivery and seen statuses. And in this blog, we’ll talk about the same.
We will discuss why messages on Messenger might appear as seen while the recipient is inactive. Read on to learn everything about this issue.
How do message statuses work on Messenger?
Messenger is Facebook’s dedicated messaging platform. Therefore, it has all the features of a messaging platform that are not available on Facebook.
Messaging is a relatively simpler experience on Facebook than it is on Messenger. Facebook provides a plain, unsophisticated chatting experience. But Messenger– a full-fledged messaging platform– provides all the features a messaging platform should have, including message statuses.
When you message someone on Messenger, the platform shows you the status of the message in several ways.
On the Messenger app:
When you send a message on the Messenger mobile app, four icons might appear just below your message.
A hollow blue circle indicates your message is being sent. Since sending a message takes little time, you’ll likely see this circle for less than a second before it is sent.
A similar blue-outlined circle with a blue check mark inside means your message has been sent from your device and has reached the servers. But, the message has not yet reached the receiver’s device. They are most likely offline.
When your message is delivered, i.e., when it reaches the receiver’s account, the icon changes into a blue-filled circle with a white check mark. The recipient has received the message, but they have most likely not seen it yet.
When the recipient sees your message, the icon changes into the recipient‘s profile picture. It means the recipient did not see a preview of your message from the notification panel or the Chats tab. They have actually opened your chat and seen your message.
On the Messenger website:
Messenger doesn’t work on mobile browsers. But it does work on the desktop. On the desktop website, the message status icons are slightly different.
A message that is being sent has a hollow gray circle instead of the blue one.
As soon as the message has been sent from your device, a gray check mark appears inside the gray circle. When the message is delivered, the circle gets filled with gray, and the check mark turns white.
And when the recipient sees the message, the circle changes into the recipient’s profile picture.
Can these icons be incorrect?
Each of these icons that you see below the messages you send is mostly correct and precise. They can’t be incorrect unless there is a technical glitch on Facebook’s end.
But if you see the Message seen icon– the small profile picture– while the recipient is not active, you are bound to believe something is wrong.
Well, it turns out that the cause is something else. Let’s figure it out.
Why Messenger Message Automatically Seen While Person is Not Active?
Any message on a messaging platform is meant to be seen when the receiver comes online. It’s a no-brainer. You have to be online to see your messages, right?
Therefore, it’s normal to get confused when a message is seen, even when the person is online. It doesn’t make sense! How do you make sense of it?
Well, there are a few techniques through which this can be possible. Most of the time, it is not any technical glitch but a series of actions that lead to the seen status even when the person seems offline.
There are mainly three reasons that may lead to such an occurrence. Let’s look at each of them below.
Case 1: They have disabled their ACTIVE status.
It is one of the most common reasons behind this issue. A user can disable their Active status anytime on Facebook or Messenger. So, if you see that the “Active Now” or “Active x minutes ago” statuses are absent from the user’s profile, they have disabled the Active status on the platform.
As such, the person might appear offline even when they are actually using Messenger. But when they see your message, you will see the “seen” icon (the small profile pic thumbnail of the recipient) below the message.
Case 2: They have seen your message from the notification panel of their phone.
This is another very common reason why your messages might be seen while the person is offline.
If the person uses the Messenger app, they can get notifications of messages even when they are not using the app. The notification of an incoming message contains a preview of the message they have received.
If the recipient likes or replies to the message via the notification without opening the Messenger app, your message will get the “seen” status while the person remains offline.
Case 3: They use Messenger from multiple devices with different settings.
Consider this situation: Your friend uses Messenger on two devices. On the desktop, they have kept their Active status enabled. This means that whenever they come online on the desktop, you would see the “Active Now” badge on the top of their chat screen as usual.
But on the Messenger app on their phone, they have turned off the Active status. So when they come online on the phone, you don’t see any such badge.
Now consider this: they last used Messenger on the desktop 2 hours ago. And you send them a message now. If they open the Messenger app and see your message, you can see the “seen” icon, although the active status would say “Active 2h ago.”
This way, your message will be seen while the recipient appears to be offline.
A quick recap
Before wrapping up this blog, let’s recap what we have discussed till now.
Like other leading instant messaging platforms, Messenger informs you about the status of the messages you send to your Facebook friends. But sometimes, the message status can puzzle you.
If your message gets the “status” even when the recipient is offline, it might mean one of several things. And we have discussed three of the most common possibilities behind this weird issue.
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