What you should know about iMessage’s new edit and unsend features

There is now some hope for those who frequently make errors, message the wrong person, or think before acting. The ability to edit and unsend iMessages is one of the features that Apple has finally enabled.

The newest version of Apple’s operating system, iOS 16, was introduced this week. It allows users to change an iMessage up to five times within 15 minutes of sending it and to unsend any message up to two minutes afterwards. Simply tap and hold the message once it has been sent, then choose “edit” or “undo send.”

But there are a few limitations. To begin with, it’s not precisely a covert operation: receivers get a notification that the message was altered or resent but are blind to the specific change.

It won’t work for exchanges involving Android devices because both users must be messaging on Apple devices. The recipient must also be running iOS 16 for it to be effective; otherwise, they would see an odd timeline of the changes that have been done. You cannot cancel or amend SMS messages.

The sender also needs to pray that the recipient didn’t see a preview of the initial message on the lock screen before it was changed or rescinded.

With services like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Gmail providing the ability to modify or remove messages after they have been sent, Apple (AAPL) is falling behind. Twitter recently disclosed that it is experimenting with allowing users to edit tweets.

According to Lian Jye Su, research director at market research firm ABI Research, “With Twitter and Apple now also enabling this feature, it is clear that this is a trend that many mobile users demand from these platforms.” “Since the barrier to switching messaging platforms is near zero, rich and user-friendly features have become a critical competitive advantage.”

Although editing and unsending messages are frequently requested, they may unintentionally affect openness and accountability, particularly on open platforms, by erasing or changing the written record. Apple might maintain some transparency by making it apparent the statement was edited, according to Ramon Llamas, an analyst at IDC.

Lllamas advises people to study what they transmit even with these additional possibilities “because it can come back to haunt you … even if you edit it,”

Since the 2017 release of the iPhone 8, iOS 16 is now accessible for all iPhone models. The capacity to flag messages as unread to make it easier to respond to later and the choice to restore recently deleted messages for up to 30 days are two other notable new iMessage features.