If a guy has been leaving you on read, this post will show you likely reasons why and what would make them more likely.

So, what does it mean when a guy leaves you on read? A guy leaving you on read could mean that he is not interested in you if he only does it with you and he shows signs of disinterest in person. He might also be busy, do it with everyone naturally, he might be annoyed with you or he might be doing it on purpose.

There are actually a number of possible reasons why a guy would leave you on read but there are some things you can consider to help figure out the main cause.

What does it mean when a guy leaves you on read?

Below are likely reasons why a guy would leave you on read and what would make them more likely.

He is not interested in you

Leaving you on read could be a sign that he is not interested in you.

This would be more likely if he seems to be more responsive to other people, he rarely texts you first, he doesn’t ask or agree to hang out with you and if he always takes a long time to reply or if he does not reply to you at all.

If he is not interested in you, he might show distancing body language when he is around you by doing things such as:

  • Avoiding eye contact
  • Standing further away from you than he does with other people
  • Avoiding talking to you
  • Facing away from you (especially with his feet)
  • Having tight lips when talking to you
  • Only smiling with the mouth and not the eyes

He is seeing someone else

It might also be a sign that he is seeing another person.

This would be more likely if he did not usually leave you on read in the past, if he suddenly started to take a long time to reply to you and if his body language suddenly became more distant. He would also be less likely to agree to hang out or to ask and he would be less likely to initiate any conversations.

He is busy

The reason why he has been leaving you on read might be that he has been busy lately.

This would be more likely if he doesn’t always take a long time to reply and if he also seems to do it with other people as well.

If he does do it because he is busy, it could still be the case that he is actually attracted to you.

If he is attracted to you, he might show signs of being attracted to you by doing things such as:

  • Hold prolonged eye contact with you
  • Adjust his appearance when he sees you
  • Glance at you a lot
  • Stand closer to you than he does with other people
  • Point his feet at you when he is around you (people point their feet at people that they are attracted to)
  • Get anxious when you are around other men
  • Have dilated pupils when looking at you

There are more signs of attraction that he might show around you and I have written about more of them in this blog post.

He is annoyed with you or someone/something else

Another possible reason is that he is annoyed with you.

This would be more likely if he usually replies quickly but he suddenly started to leave you on read when something might have caused him to get annoyed with you.

If he was annoyed with you, he might have shown it by doing things such as:

  • Squinting
  • Facing away from you
  • Having tight lips
  • Standing further away from you
  • Avoiding eye contact

He does it naturally

It could also be the case that he naturally leaves people on read.

If this is the case, it would be more likely that he would act in a similar way with other people and that he would show the same body language around them as he does with you.

If he does, it would be likely that he would show signs of attraction around you that he doesn’t around other people.

He does it on purpose

Men will often leave women on read so that it makes it seem like they are not very interested in them when they actually are. They do this to get you to think that they are not into you so that your interest in them increases. This would be more likely if you have not known him for long and if he does show signs of interest, in you, in his body language when he is around you in person.

Consider how he reacts to seeing you

It would help to consider the way that he reacts upon seeing you when figuring out why he might have been doing it.

If he noticeably changes his behavior and body language, when he sees you, it would make it more likely that he has good or bad feelings about you.

If he reacts to seeing you by doing things such as:

  • Adjusting his appearance
  • Adjusting his posture
  • Holding eye contact
  • Facing towards you (especially with his feet)
  • Moving closer to you

Then it would make it more likely that he is actually attracted to you.

Whereas, if he reacts to seeing you by doing things such as:

  • Squinting
  • Facing away from you
  • Moving away from you
  • Only smiling at the mouth
  • Avoiding eye contact

Then it would make it more likely that he has negative feelings about you.

Consider what he does text you

If he does text you sometimes, it would also help to consider what he does text you.

If he often starts the conversation, he continues the conversation or if he wants to hang out with you when he texts you, it would make it more likely that he is attracted to you despite the long time to reply to messages.

Whereas, if he doesn’t want to hang out and he doesn’t continue the conversation, it would make it more likely that he is not interested in you. However, he still could be and it would help to consider the body language he shows you in person.

Consider how he interacts with other people

It would also help to compare the way that he interacts with you with how he interacts with other people.

If he shows the same body language around you as he does with other people, it would make it more likely that he takes a long time to reply to people naturally.

Whereas, if he shows different body language around you, it would be more likely that he has good or bad feelings about you depending on how he changes it.

Consider multiple aspects of his body language

It would help to consider multiple signs at the same time since single body language signs can be misleading.

This is because he could be showing a single body language sign for many different reasons. This makes single body language signs unreliably on their own.

Whereas, if he shows multiple body language signs that all suggest the same thing then it would be more likely that he is showing them for that specific reason.

If you want to learn more about body language, a book I would recommend would be The Definitive Book of Body Language (on Amazon). It shows you how to interpret body language and understand people's true intentions.

Author

I created and currently manage Body Language Central, one of the premier sources for body language-related knowledge. Body language plays a key role in our daily lives. I hope that my website can help condense the wide amount of body language information available and allow you to make full use of it in your daily life. You can read more about me and my website here.