WhatsApp is a great messaging tool to stay in touch with your nearest and dearest in a speedy way – and there's also the bonus of being able to tell when someone was 'last seen'

A self-development coach has revealed your chosen WhatsApp settings can say a lot about your personality. Apparently it's about something a little deeper than which background you choose to have on your conversations, or the colours your chat bubbles are.

WhatsApp is a really popular messaging platform, where users can see the exact time someone was last online, when they've read their message, and chats are end-to-end encrypted. However, some people choose to turn certain elements off. Sukaina Louisa shared "the psychology of turning read receipts off," and people who have done this may be gobsmacked at what she thinks it says about them.

She said people who choose to switch their read receipts off are "naturally avoidant people" and claimed they're the "kind who just want to ignore others in peace".

"They want to be able to ignore somebody without being bothered," Sukaina shared, because if they read someone's message and the other person knows that, they're likely panicking about it.

She continued: "They don't want somebody to know that they've read their message and they haven't replied, okay?

"So these people are naturally avoidant. A lot of people who are in relationships will do this, a lot of people who are dating, they're in situationships, they turn the 'seen' messages off because they want to be able to ignore you."

Sukaina also said these people often want to "seem like they're busy," so they cannot reply to a text in a timely manner, as their "capacity is low".

However, Sukaina said she does believe that people "owe others communication," and it's "basic respect" to reply if something requires one.

In the comments of her TikTok, however, some people defended their choice to turn read receipts off as one wrote: "Actually, I do it for my own anxiety because otherwise I spiral if I get left on read."

Another said: "I know people that turned them off for their own sanity, not being able to see if OTHERS read THEIR message." A third defiantly wrote: "I have mine off because I don’t owe anyone immediate responses."

A fourth penned: "It’s not that for me. It’s because I think it’s incredibly invasive for people to know when you’re online or read a message. It’s so bizarre to me, and I think it’s a really unhealthy feature of any online messaging."

While a fifth said: "When someone isn’t in our presence, we don’t owe them constant access to us. That’s a modern expectation created by technology. We’ve traded real conversations for endless notifications.

"In the process, we’ve lost something important: anticipation, longing, and the feeling of genuinely missing someone. If you want to talk to someone, call them. Better yet, arrange to meet up.

"Some conversations are meant to be heard, not typed. Some moments are meant to be shared, not sent. Real connection has never needed a typing indicator."

Others said they found it "peaceful" not to know when others were last seen on the messaging service, and vice versa.

However, some people disagreed and said: "I have read receipts on, I just let people know I'm ignoring them!"

Do you have WhatsApp read receipts on or off? What's the reason? Let us know in the comments...