Group chats make setting up plans so much easier, no matter whether you're choosing which restaurant to reserve a table at or arranging an entire week-long vacation. Sometimes it's not enough to just speak with your friends — you need to know who has or hasn't seen a specific message. It's a feature supported by apps like Facebook Messenger, but up until now, something Telegram has completely lacked.

As spotted by Reddit user RationalityOn, Telegram's latest beta software now supports group read receipts, so you can see exactly who has viewed a specific message in a thread. Follow-up comments note it'll only support group chats with less than 50 recipients, which should keep lists from growing too long. On desktop, you can view who's seen a message by right-clicking on it. On Android, a long-press brings up the same menu.

Early opinions on group read receipts seem pretty divided. While some users have been waiting for this sort of feature to come to Telegram for years, others are hesitant to allow group members to know they've viewed a message — especially if it can't be disabled in settings.

It's unclear if and when this will ship in a stable version of the app, or whether user feedback will push read receipts to become optional. But if you've been begging for a way to make sure your flakiest friend still shows up to dinner, this could end up as a pretty handy tool. If you want to try it out on Android, you can download Telegram's beta by checking out Microsoft's App Center, where the app's dev team uploads their latest revisions.