Read receipts, and the switch that turns them off

What you see

Under each message you sent, once somebody has opened the thread since, a small line appears:

• Seen by and your host's name — the host side reads as one reader, never a list of their staff.
• A companion who joined your trip appears by first name, and three or more readers read "and 2 others".

Nothing appears until somebody actually opens the thread after your message was sent.

What your host sees

The same line pointing the other way: Seen by and your first name, once you have opened the thread after their message.

Opening a thread is what marks it read. That moment is what their "Seen by" is built from.

The switch, and why it cuts both ways

Read receipts are on by default, and the setting covers your whole account rather than one conversation. It is under Account settings → Privacy and sharing → Read receipts, on kabora.app and in the Kabora app.

Turning them off is symmetric: hosts stop being told when you read, and you stop being told when they do. That is deliberate. Keeping receipts coming in while stopping your own is an advantage, not a privacy setting, and calling it privacy would be dishonest.

It takes effect straight away, for messages already sent too.

Where the switch reaches

Every screen that shows a read time. With either person's switch off, your host sees nothing about when you read — in their inbox on the web or on their phone — and the plain Seen in your own thread goes too.

What the switch does not touch, by design

Your own place in a thread. Kabora still records where you got to, because that is what draws your unread count. That bookmark is yours; a receipt is the other person being told about it.

Unread is yours to set

Mark as unread, from the three-dot menu on an open thread, puts a conversation you have already opened back in bold and back in your Unread count.

Kabora moves you out of the thread when you do it. That is on purpose: sitting in the thread would stamp it read again and wipe the mark you just made. The mark then lasts until you next open that thread, and opening it clears it.