Read receipts, typing indicators, and message delivery

Silky Road messaging is live: if the other person is online, your message reaches them immediately, and you can see when they are typing and when they have read it.

Read receipts

When you open a conversation, everything in it from the other person is marked as read, and they are told — straight away, without either of you refreshing.

Things worth knowing:

• There is no way to turn read receipts off. There is no setting and no incognito mode. Opening the thread is what marks it read.
• It marks the whole thread, not one message. Opening a conversation with twenty unread messages marks all twenty.
• Seeing a message in your notifications or in an email does not mark it read. Only opening the thread does. That is why a sender can see "unread" even though the other person has, in a real sense, read it.
• The time shown is when the thread was opened, not when the message was considered or replied to.

If a conversation shows as read and you do not remember opening it, it was most likely opened on another device or in a tab you left open.

The typing indicator

When the other person is writing, you see that they are typing. It clears when they stop or send.

• It cannot be switched off, and there is no setting for it.
• Typing does not promise a message. People type and then delete. A "typing" indicator followed by nothing is the most common confusion here, and it is not a fault.
• Nothing about it is saved. There is no record to look up afterwards.
• If the indicator seems stuck on, it usually means the other person closed their tab or lost connection. Reload the page — it is cosmetic only.

If you never see typing indicators at all, your live connection is not working. Reloading usually fixes it.

Notifications and the bell count

The bell shows things that happened while you were away — new messages, offers on your listings, bids, verification decisions and more. The count is the number you have not read.

• Reading a notification, or using "mark all read", clears it from the count.
• Support replies are the exception. "Mark all read" deliberately leaves them alone, and they stay unread until you open the ticket itself. So if you cleared everything and the badge is still showing, a support reply is almost always why. That is not a bug.
• You cannot mark something unread again. It is one-way.
• Marking a notification read is not the same as reading the conversation. They are separate, so a message notification cleared from the bell does not mark the thread read.
• Deleting a notification does not undo what it was about. Clearing a "you have an offer" notification does not decline the offer.

When you clear notifications in bulk, only the ones you have already read are removed by default. Unread ones are kept unless you explicitly ask for everything. Deleting is permanent — there is no undo.

When you get an email instead

If you are not online when something happens, Silky Road emails you. If you are online, you simply see it happen and no email is sent.

For messages specifically:

• You get nothing at all while you are actively viewing that conversation.
• You get at most one email every 15 minutes per conversation. A burst of ten messages in one thread is one email, not ten. Five active threads can still mean five emails, because the limit is per conversation.

Most email types can be switched off in your privacy settings — listing updates, new message notifications, system notices, the weekly digest and marketing.

Two kinds cannot be switched off: account and transaction emails (receipts, verification links, sign-in links, dispute notices) and security alerts. You cannot opt out of a receipt for money you spent, a link you asked for, or notice of a dispute you are part of. Emails you cannot unsubscribe from do not carry an unsubscribe link, because there is nothing to switch off.

If you unsubscribed and are still getting email, check which email actually arrived — it is usually one of those two categories, and that is correct behaviour rather than a fault.