• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 8, 2016

Twitter finally plans to add ‘read receipts’ to its messaging service, the social giant said Thursday.

Represented in the form of little blue check marks, receipts simply let users know when those with whom they are corresponding have read their messages.

Unlike Facebook Messenger, Twitter will let users opt out of the new feature.

Twitter on Thursday also told users to expect ‘typing indicators’ -- which will show them when friends are in the process of typing out a message -- and Web link previews.

Led by Facebook Messenger, mobile messaging is changing the way consumers and businesses communicate.

Across nine developed countries, three-quarters of consumers now “talk” to businesses with mobile messages, according to a recent report from the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF).

“Consumers and enterprises are embracing all kinds of mobile-messaging channels across a broad range of uses and verticals,” Rimma Perelmuter, CEO at MEF, noted in the report.

“However, there is a clear opportunity for growth with 24% of SMS users and 35% of chat app users currently unengaged,” according to Perelmuter.

A full 65% of consumers communicate with businesses via chat apps, while 76% do so via SMS, according to the MEF, which surveyed some 6,000 respondents for its findings.

Among platforms, Facebook and WhatApp -- a unit of Facebook -- dominate business-to-consumer communications, with 56% market penetration and a 50% market penetration, respectively. SMS, which comes standard on most smartphone, currently maintain a 42% market penetration.

Among other developed countries, the UK and the United States currently lead with 19% of consumers in both markets engaging via chat apps.