zulip/help/marking-messages-as-read.md

Marking messages as read

Zulip automatically keeps track of which messages you have and haven't read. Unread messages have a line along the left side, which fades when the message gets marked as read.

Zulip offers tools to manually mark one or more messages as read, and you can configure whether messages are marked as read automatically when you scroll.

Configure whether messages are automatically marked as read

You may want to configure whether or not the Zulip app will automatically mark messages as read. For example, it can be useful to set the mobile app to never mark messages as read if you often want to follow up on messages when you are at your computer. You will still be able to manually mark messages as read.

{start_tabs}

{tab|desktop-web}

{settings_tab|preferences}

1. Under Advanced, click on the Automatically mark messages as read dropdown, and select Always, Never or Only in conversation views.

{tab|mobile}

{!mobile-profile-menu.md!}

1. Tap Settings.

2. Tap Mark messages as read on scroll.

3. Select Always, Never or Only in conversation views.

{end_tabs}

Mark a message as read

{start_tabs}

{tab|desktop-web}

1. Select the message using the blue box to mark it as read. You can scroll the blue box using the mouse, or with keyboard navigation shortcuts.

{end_tabs}

Mark all messages as read

You can manually mark all messages as read, or mark all messages in a stream or topic as read.

{start_tabs}

{tab|via-left-sidebar}

1. Hover over a stream, topic, or All messages in the left sidebar.

2. Click on the ellipsis ().

3. Click Mark all messages as read.

!!! tip ""

You can also mark all messages in your current view as read by
jumping to the bottom with the **Scroll to bottom**
(<i class="fa fa-chevron-down"></i>) button or the <kbd>End</kbd> shortcut.

{tab|via-inbox-view}

{relative|message|inbox}

1. Hover over a stream or topic in the left sidebar.

2. Click on the ellipsis ().

3. Click Mark all messages as read.

{tab|via-recent-conversations}

{relative|message|recent}

1. Click on an unread messages counter in the Topic column to mark all messages in that topic as read.

{tab|mobile}

1. Tap a stream, topic, or the All messages () tab.

2. Tap Mark stream as read, Mark topic as read, or Mark all as read near the top right corner of the app.

!!! tip ""

You can also press and hold a topic until the long-press menu appears, and
select **Mark topic as read**.

{end_tabs}

Related articles

• Marking messages as unread
• Reading strategies
• Read receipts