WhatsApp now allows you to edit messages with a 15-minute time limit

Image credits: The WhatsApp

WhatsApp finally announced one of the most anticipated features today – message editing.

Note Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook post Users can now edit a message within 15 minutes of sending the message. If you want to do so, you can press and hold on a message, and tap the Edit option to edit the message. Edited messages will have an “Edited” tag next to the timestamp to mark the change. However, the app will not keep any debug history. Other users will not be able to see previous versions of edited messages.

We’re glad you now have more control over your conversations, such as correcting misspellings or adding more context to a message. For this, within 15 minutes of sending a message, you have to tap and hold on that message for a while and then select the Edit option from the menu The company said in blog post.

Image credits: The WhatsApp

Until now, users had to either delete a message entirely or submit a correction in a separate message. Last year, the chat app increased the time limit for deleting a message from two days (48 hours) to 60 hours.

WhatsApp competitors like Telegram and Signal have long offered the ability to edit messages. With iOS 16, Apple also introduced the ability to edit and unsend messages sent via iMessage. Even Twitter introduced the edit button for paid users last year. While the time limit for editing a message isn’t as generous as Telegram’s 48-hour window, it’s still better than nothing.

I’ve had a fair share of misspellings in messages, but the edit feature will allow me to quickly correct mistakes instead of sending another message. Sending corrections can 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 was replaced with a gray note saying “This message has been deleted.”

Meta said that the feature is already being rolled out to users and will be available to everyone in a few weeks.