Telegram has for years been in the forefront of having users totally delete or edit a message sent in a chat conversation and it took Meta Inc some years to have the ‘deleted for everyone’ feature in it’s famous WhatsApp chat. WhatsApp do not see have the ‘edit feature’ for message already sent neither do the Facebook messenger have it.
Imagine how embarrassing it is to mistakenly send a wrong text to someone in the middle of a chat conversation? Even when you delete it, you may have to deal with the curiosity of the receiver who is either seeing ‘deleted message’ or ‘message has been unsent’?
iPhone maker, Apple has joined the likes of Telegram and iMo to allow users edit messages on its iMessage chat app.
Apple has in the iOS 16 beta, introduced a feature to its iMessage chat app that allows users to unsend and edit a sent message.
An excellent update you say?
Yes, Obviously!
But before you rejoice too much, you must note that the feature won’t work unless you are also on iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or macOS Ventura.
You should know that you can only delete the message within 2 minutes of sending it.
Apple had in the first public beta, allowed users to unsend their messages within 15 minutes of sending it but if they have installed the second public beta, it has been changed to two minutes, after which the option will disappear from the drop-down menu.
Below are the steps to take to delete the message as seen in the image below:
Long-press on the message.
Navigate to the drop-down menu, to click Undo Send.
The message will then immediately disappear
After knowing how to delete a sent message, here are the tips to know how to edit a sent message:
Just like the delete option, you have to long-press on the message.
When you see the drop-down menu, click on Edit.
Then proceed to edit your message and then tap the check mark to the right of the message to send the correction
To see all of your edits, click on the small Edited link below the message. You can proceed to click on Hide Edits in order to just see the last message.
The image below illustrates it further.
In the update, users can have like a full 15 minutes to edit the message and after the expiration of the 15 messages; they won’t be able to edit it again as the Edit option will no longer be on the menu.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals.
He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
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