Any other devices synced via iMessage that might have it on?

Check per contact, as you can turn it on and off for individual contacts. How do you know it’s showing you’ve read their texts, have they told you? It won’t show you in the message thread that “you” have read the message, only on their side.

Yes, my boyfriend an I have tested this by sending texts an it displays every time, same with everyone that I text in iMessage. I never mess with my settings of my phone when I get them, so however it comes factory set is how it has been since I got it.

I don’t have any other devices other than my Apple Watch.

Did you go to your boyfriend iMessage thread, click on his name and scroll down to the options, you’ll see “read receipts” turn it on and off, or off if it’s on.

So beyond system wide settings, this is the per contact settings.

Check his phone as well

It’s per contact. Mines always been off but suddenly after iOS 16 installed I had a few that somehow were turned on. No idea why but toggled of per contact and it fixed it.