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 can choose how messages are automatically marked as read in the Zulip web and mobile apps. You can configure the mobile app differently from the web/desktop app.

  • Always: Messages are marked as read whenever you scroll through them in the app. You may be used to this from other chat applications.
  • Never: Messages are marked as read only manually. For example, if you often need to follow up on messages at your computer after reading them in the mobile app, you can choose this option for the mobile app.
  • Only in conversation views: In Zulip, a conversation is a direct message thread (one-on-one or with a group), or a topic in a stream. This option makes it convenient to preview new messages in a stream, or skim All messages, and later read each topic in detail.

  1. Go to Preferences.

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

  1. Tap your profile picture in the bottom right corner of the app.

  2. Tap Settings.

  3. Tap Mark messages as read on scroll.

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

Mark a message as read

  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.

Mark all messages as read

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

  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.

You can also mark all messages in your current view as read by jumping to the bottom with the Scroll to bottom () button or the End shortcut.

  1. Click on Inbox (or if the views section is collapsed) in the left sidebar, or use the Shift + I keyboard shortcut.

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

  3. Click on the ellipsis ().

  4. Click Mark all messages as read.

  1. Click on Recent conversations (or if the views section is collapsed) in the left sidebar, or use the T keyboard shortcut.

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

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

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

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