I sent someone a Facebook Messenger message, and the message is marked as "Seen" on my phone. However, the person insists they never received or saw it, and says it still isn't visible in the conversation even after checking several times. Other messages sent before and after it are present normally. Could the seen status be caused by a glitch, accidental opening, or someone else accessing their device?
4 Answers
There’s no reliable way to determine exactly who viewed it or prove the precise time from the conversation alone. Asking them to check is reasonable, but messages can be deleted, archived, or fail to sync correctly. I wouldn’t treat the “Seen” label by itself as absolute proof that the person deliberately read and remembered the message.
A “Seen” status usually means the recipient’s account or one of their logged-in devices opened the conversation. That doesn’t necessarily prove the person consciously read the message, though. The chat might already have been open, they could have tapped into it accidentally, or someone else may have been using the device. A temporary sync or app glitch is also possible, but it’s harder to confirm after the fact.
If it was deleted afterward, it wouldn’t be visible now. The seen marker may also have been triggered before the message was removed or before the app finished syncing.
A software glitch can’t be ruled out, but it’s not the usual explanation. More likely possibilities are accidental opening, another logged-in device, someone else using the phone, or the message being deleted after it was marked as seen.
The status is sent when a device associated with their account views the conversation, but it doesn’t identify who was holding the device or guarantee they actually noticed that particular message. Someone else could have accessed the phone, or the conversation may have been opened briefly and closed without the message being read carefully.
That makes sense, but they say the message still doesn’t appear in the conversation, even though the messages around it do.