Sometimes (as when following a /near/ link) you want to go straight to a specific message, even if it's unread, and you don't want the app to mess with your read state in doing so. Web handles this; see discussion:
#mobile-team > msglist: anchor when tapping recipient header @ 💬
- File an issue to implement "this view does not mark messages as read" mode; use that mode when following /near/ links […]
I think some key features of the new mode are:
- UI that makes it clear what's happening
- UI to exit the temporary state
Web has those UI features (an alert with a "Mark as read" button):

(I guess we should only show those if we'd ordinarily be marking read as scroll, given the narrow and the "Mark messages as read on scroll" setting.)
And I guess we're already missing those features when we enter a "not-marking-read" state on tapping "Mark as unread from here" in the action sheet.
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