What Do the Icons Appearing Along Your Message on Facebook Messenger Mean?

By Habiba RehmanUpdated on June 11, 2024

If you’re new to Facebook Messenger, you might have noticed various circles that appear next to or beneath the messages you’ve sent through the platform. It’s important to note that these icons differ from those used in the Facebook chat. They include an empty circle with a grey outline, a grey tick with a white background within the grey circle outline, a white tick within a grey circle, and a circle displaying the recipient’s profile picture.

An Empty Circle with a Grey Outline: The empty circle with a grey outline appears next to your message in Facebook Messenger when it is in the process of being sent but hasn’t left your device yet. This icon usually shows up when your internet connection is unstable or turned off.

A Grey Tick with a White Background Within the Grey Circle Outline: This icon indicates that your message has been sent from your device but not yet delivered to the recipient’s device.

Filled Grey Circle with a White Tick: A filled grey circle with a white tick on Facebook Messenger denotes your message has been delivered.
Note: Ensure you’re aware that ‘delivered’ means the recipient’s device or network has received your message, but they might not have viewed it yet.

A Circle Displaying the Recipient’s Profile Picture:A circle displaying the recipient’s profile picture means they have opened and read your message.

For group chats, the profile pictures of everyone who has read your message will appear directly below it.

Who Can Contact You on Facebook Messenger

Anyone you’ve ever had a conversation with can be found in Facebook Messenger. Your Facebook friends can message you, as can strangers or distant acquaintances. Messages from individuals who are not on your friends list will show up in Facebook Messenger’s ‘message request‘ feature. This filter allows you to manage contact from strangers, who can only reach your main inbox if you accept their message request or add them as a friend.

Message requests are accessible in your Facebook Messenger.

Here, people who are not connected to you can message you, but they are granted full access only if you respond to them.

To avoid unwanted attention from a persistent contact, you can select ‘I Don’t Want to Hear from “name of the person”‘.

By Habiba RehmanUpdated on June 11, 2024

Comments

Bagaboo Jan 14, 2020

What’s the difference between your message being sent and it being received by your friend? What is considered “sent”? Wouldn’t it have to be received by the other phone to be considered as “sent”?

Shane Warren Author Jan 16, 2020

A Single tick means sent such that it is sent from your phone and is currently stored on the server and hasnt yet been received.
A Double tick means sent and received. It has to just be sent from your side to be considered Sent. It has to be received from their site to be considered received.

Bagaboo Jan 19, 2020

Thanks.

Lisa Jamison Anthofer Mar 27, 2020

How would you know if you had been muted or blocked? Is there an icon for THAT? Thanks

Shane Warren Author Mar 28, 2020

You can’t know if you have muted but if you have been blocked, you see the “You can’t reply to this conversation anymore” message whenever you open the chat.

Sheree Mazz Jun 18, 2020

How do I retrieve the above option if I am being stalked?

Shane Warren Author Jun 20, 2020

What option? Can you please elaborate

Sheree Mazz Jun 19, 2020

Am I Unblocked on Facebook Messenger if when I open our Chat, at bottom of screen it says…” If you reply to X he will be able to call you and see your active status etc. Do you want to hear from X?” So I sent X a message and when I pressed send, a red circle with a black exclamation mark came up,and then the message and red circle just disappeared after a few seconds of hitting send. Was it sent? What happened? Am I still blocked? And if so, what is the purpose of Messenger giving me the option if I want to hear from x. Also, there is no phone or video recorder on top of screen. Thankyou

You aren’t blocked if the “If you Reply” message shows up, did u see a tick mark next to your message?

Sheree Mazz Jun 20, 2020

Ok.. now is when it gets confusing Shane. I’m blocked on Facebook as I’ve checked with a mate. So..if blocked on FB doesn’t that mean automatically blocked on Messenger?
With the message I sent, a red circle with a black exclamation mark came up. A few seconds later, both the message and red circle just disappeared. No proof of message sent what so ever!
X hasn’t replied, not that I was expecting him to either.
Looking forward to your reply

Shane Warren Author Jun 21, 2020

Yup Facebook automatically blocks them from messenger but if you block someone from messenger, they aren’t automatically blocked from Facebook. So if the message isn’t going through and you are blocked on Facebook, they have also blocked you on messenger

Shane Warren Author Jun 22, 2020

Seems like it glitched out because it should be saying “You can’t reply to this conversation” instead of that. However, if you see a single tick mark next to your message it means that the message i going through.

Vicki Sorensen Jul 4, 2020

How long does the grey unfilled circle stay in unsent mode? Does it disappear when read?

Shane Warren Author Jul 5, 2020

When the message is sent it shows a single grey tick instead.

Vicki Sorensen Jul 5, 2020

But it never shows that it goes from white circle to gone.

Shane Warren Author Jul 8, 2020

Then the message isn’t being received from them. Most probably they have blocked you or aren’t receiving messages from you but it can also be a network issue.

Gabriella Sep 4, 2020

Does the profile picture show up if the person you sent the msg to is NOT a contact?

K. Arrows Author Sep 5, 2020

Yes. it does.

Gabriella Sep 5, 2020

Thank you. To clarify, I mean the profile picture circular icon that shows the message has been read by the recipient, if that person is not a FB friend?

Yes, the picture will be visible even if the person is not a fb friend.

Reg Feb 13, 2021

I’m not convinced. I did a test that suggests otherwise.

Lady M Sep 20, 2020

What does it mean if you saw their picture icon show up next to your message, but then it goes back to the circle with the gray checkmark?

Muhammad Zubyan Author Sep 20, 2020

I didn’t quite understand what you mean can you please post a screenshot over here of what you are talking about, Thanks!

At first it showed the picture of the person, like they had already viewed it. However now it is back to this gray tick mark. Does that mean they didnt read it or they did read it?

Muhammad Zubyan Author Sep 21, 2020

It means that the message is sent but they didn’t read it. Thanks!

barry whitt Jan 8, 2021

what does a grey check mark in a white circle mean ?

Muhammad Zubyan Author Jan 9, 2021

The white circle with the grey tick means that the message is still in the process of being delivered.

RM Oct 27, 2021

https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

Muhammad Zubyan Author Oct 28, 2021

The person that you sent this message to, reacted to your message with this emoji. It seems like a zero: 0️⃣

What does a small black box with an elliptical white circle that is black on its inside in the center, that is on the lower left corner of an earlier sent message?
It sorta resembles a camera icon, but this is different from the camera icon

Muhammad Zubyan Author Oct 29, 2021

I already replied to your question it’s an emoji the user you sent the message to reacted with this emoji ‘0️⃣’. It doesn’t mean anything.

Muhammad Noman Nov 7, 2021

When a person open his new message request, and seen all the messages, Which icon will be shown us?

Muhammad Zubyan Author Nov 7, 2021

The person will know that you have seen his/her messages. So “A Circle Displaying the Profile Picture of the Recipient” will be shown.

Muhammad Noman Nov 8, 2021

I want to ask, when I send a message to a person who is not my friend, then my message get a tik with grey color filling circle, its means that person has known that I have sent him or her a message but he didn’t open and read it.

Muhammad Zubyan Author Nov 8, 2021

Yes, also it indicates that the person you sent message to doesn’t have internet.

Norma Seefeldt Sep 9, 2022

What does the small profile icon mean when it appears beside the Sender’s Own Message on Facebook Messenger?

Muhammad Zubyan Author Sep 11, 2022

It means that the person you sent message to have seen the message.

Josef Roesler Sep 19, 2022

You left out white circle instead of the person’s chosen avatar. And as usual, the internet is stupid and has no answer for that. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

Muhammad Zubyan Author Sep 19, 2022

Internet isn’t stupid, that’s just his profile photo it’s blank.

Renee Gray Jul 5, 2023

What does it mean when there is a picture icon above beside and below a message?

Muhammad Zubyan Author Jul 9, 2023

Can you please attach a screenshot?

Alex Jul 9, 2023

Hi, what does it mean when under the massege i sended says “send 2 days ago”? That the person didnt read the massege and it is possible that the person has somehow like “muted” my masseges or something like that or just didnt read the massege (opened it)?

Muhammad Zubyan Author Aug 12, 2023

“Sent 2 days ago” typically indicates that the message you sent was delivered to the recipient’s device or messaging platform two days ago. However, it doesn’t provide information about whether the recipient has read the message or not.