What does a check mark mean on Facebook Messenger?

If you’ve ever sent a message to a friend on Facebook Messenger, you’ve probably noticed a little check mark icon next to the message you sent.

They’re nothing to worry about, but these check mark icons do offer up a little information on the status of the Messenger messages you send. Want to know what each of these check mark icons means? Keep reading to find out.

What does a check mark mean on Messenger?

Those check mark icons that you see after you’ve sent a message on Messenger aren’t just random symbols. They are icons that are part of a larger series of message indicators that Messenger uses to tell you what the current status of your sent message is. These statuses could be one of the following:

• Your message is still sending.
• Your message has successfully sent.
• The message has been successfully delivered to your intended recipient.
• The message has been viewed by your intended recipient.

But not all of these statuses are denoted by check mark icons in Facebook Messenger. Only two of them are. In the next section, we’ll go over all of the icons used to indicate the above statuses, including the check mark icons.

What does each Messenger message status icon mean?

Note: The colors of each icon listed below may vary beyond blue and white. You may also see purple and white. Or even gray and white. We mentioned the color blue below because that is what’s currently listed on Facebook’s own Help Center guide on the matter.

If you see an empty blue circle …

Your message is still processing. It’s still sending. This means Messenger hasn’t received your message yet.

If you see a blue circle with a white middle and a blue check mark …

The message is officially considered “sent” but not delivered. And there is a difference between the two. For Messenger, “sent” just means Messenger has gotten your message and will deliver it to your friend. And “delivered” means that your friend has received the message, but hasn’t viewed it yet.

If you see a blue circle with a blue middle and white check mark …

This is the icon that means your message has been successfully delivered to your friend. Your message is now sitting in your friend’s Messenger inbox waiting to be read.

If you see your friend’s tiny profile picture …

Then that means your friend has viewed your message. Congrats! Your Facebook Messenger message was sent, delivered, and viewed successfully!

Need more help with Facebook Messenger? Check out our other guides: How to use Facebook Messenger without a Facebook account and How to delete messages in Facebook Messenger.

Editors’ Recommendations

• 
  What does the lock mean on Snapchat?
• 
  What is Twitter Blue and is it worth it?
• 
  Twitter’s SMS two-factor authentication is having issues. Here’s how to switch methods
• 
  Twitter begins rollout of new gray check marks only to abruptly remove them
• 
  Some blue check Twitter users were unable to edit their names