Can I adjust how quickly a message is marked as read?

Yes.

For starters, messages are marked as "read" immediately after you click on them. But since it’s possible to quickly scan messages in the reading pane now, and since some people like to keep certain messages marked as unread as a way of flagging them to “get back to later”, a delay in marking a message as “read” can be a convenience. We’re happy to offer it!

So, if you'd like a longer delay before a message is marked as “read”, click Options, then click General on the left side. In the middle section, after “Mark message as read”, choose 2 seconds or 5 seconds from the pull-down menu.

Spam note: Spammers detect when you open a message regardless of when it’s marked as read. If you don't want spammers to know you read a message, you should block all incoming images. Click Options, then click Spam from the list on the left. Under “SpamGuard”, look for “Incoming images” and check “Initially block all images”.

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