WhatsApp has finally announced one of today’s most anticipated features: message editing.
Mark Zuckerberg noted in a Facebook post that users can now edit a post within 15 minutes of the post being sent. If you prefer, you can press and hold on a message and tap the Edit option to change the message. The edited posts have an “edited” tag next to the timestamp to mark the change. However, the app does not keep any correction history. Other users cannot see the previous versions of edited posts.
“We’re excited that you now have more control over your chats, such as correcting spelling mistakes or adding more context to a message. To do this, within 15 minutes of sending the message, you need to press and hold on that message for a while and then select the ‘Edit’ option from the menu,” the company said in a blog post.
Image Credits: WhatsApp
Until now, users had to delete a message altogether or send a correction in a separate message. Last year, the chat app increased the time limit to delete a message from two days (48 hours) to 60 hours.
WhatsApp’s competitors, such as Telegram and Signal, have long offered the ability to edit messages. With iOS 16, Apple also introduced the ability to edit and undo messages sent via iMessage. Even Twitter introduced the edit button for paying users last year. While the time limit for editing a post isn’t as generous as Telegram’s 48-hour window, it’s still better than nothing.
I’ve had quite a few typos in messages, but the edit feature allows me to quickly correct mistakes instead of sending another message. Sending corrections may confuse the recipient. It also creates unnecessary notifications. When you delete a message, it doesn’t completely disappear from the conversation, which can also be confusing. Instead, it’s replaced with a gray note that says “This message has been deleted.”
Meta said the feature is already rolling out to users and will be available to everyone in a few weeks.