This is important because someone close to me and I recently had a fight. They have read receipts disabled in iMessage, and I want to know whether there's any way to tell if they've seen my message without asking them directly.
2 Answers
No, there isn’t a reliable way to see whether an iMessage was read when the recipient has read receipts turned off. You’ll only be able to tell that it was delivered, if delivery status appears.
The best option is to avoid sending a bunch of follow-up messages. If this person matters to you, send one calm message saying you’d like to talk when they’re ready, then give them some space. You could also ask whether they’d be willing to turn on read receipts, but they may choose not to.
It’s difficult because things are already tense, but I’ll try not to overwhelm them with messages.

I can’t really just ask them because we had a fight, and the situation is pretty serious.