messages
I sent a message to a contact at 2:46 PM, and for hours it showed delivered. When I checked the message at 9 PM it shows it was read at 2:46 PM.
I tried searching for the answer on Google with no luck. Did the person turn their read receipts off then back on? Does anyone know why that would happen?
It's an issue with OS X & Exchange sync. As a workaround, you can use the OWA app by Microsoft to sync your contacts to iCloud:
On iOS there's an app called OWA. Within the app there's a setting within the People section for sync'ing your contacts. Basically it creates a new group in your iCloud called OWA that is a carbon copy of your contacts.
Once I turned this on and saw it sync with my laptop, I got my names resolved and showing in iMessage again!
I have documented a more complete explanation and resolution in Resolving Contacts Sync on OS X - Error SOAPWebServicesErrorDomain.
I'm assuming you are talking about the default Apple messaging app - iMessages. In iMessages, you (as a sender) can set your iMessage Read Receipt to ON/OFF. If it's set to ON on YOUR phone, when a person sends you an iMessage text and you read it, they will get a READ indicator on their phone.
Conversely, if you send a text to a person who has set their Read Receipt to off, you will only see "Delivered" when the text was delivered. There will be no "read" in this case.
Take a look at this Engadget article which describes this in depth.
Apple's iMessage app provides message status updates that let you know when a message has been delivered. It also has a handy feature called Read Receipts that lets you know when someone has read the message.
This status update can be a blessing when you want someone to know automatically that you have viewed their time-sensitive response. Apple handles the status update so you don't have to do anything other than open the message. Just read the iMessage and the sender will see the "Read" timestamp in their timeline.
As useful as the Read Receipts feature may be, it also can cause angst both for the sender and recipient. You can imagine the following scenario -- a wife discovers she is pregnant and sends an excited message to her husband. She sees that he read the message an hour ago and is upset because he never responded. On the other end is the husband, who viewed the message right before an important meeting. He now is agonizing over how to respond while his boss is breathing over his back, knowing that his wife is aware of the fact that the message has been read.
If you wish to avoid such complicated message relationships, you can easily turn off read receipts, which hides the fact that you have read a message from the sender. The sender will still see the "delivered" status, so they can be assured the message arrive on your handset. They just won't know if or when you have read the message. Follow these steps to turn off Read Receipts...
Best Answer
A common cause for this is simply that the contact received the message, but didn't have enough signal (cell or WiFi connectivity, or phone in flight mode, or similar) to be able to send the read-receipt back.
The read-receipt then comes through much later when the phone regains its connection with Apple's servers.