Many of us have mistakenly sent messages to the wrong person or made typos. This article explains how to end both of these in iOS 16.
Apple has added new features to iMessage that allow you to correct mistakes before they reach the recipient. Now you can edit a message after sending it and you can even unsend it.
This feature is a true override; With Mail, “Unsend” really means that you have a few seconds before sending a message to correct it.
With iMessage, that message is sent, received, but you can still cancel it. Of course there are conditions, but in general the ability to cancel is a very useful feature.
Also, like Telegram, it will be one of the things that is easily exploited. There is a small protection that prevents someone from pretending that they never sent you a message and, like WhatsApp, you will be told that a message has been deleted, but the content of their message can be Unsend.
So, if someone sends you nasty messages and then unsends them before you can show them to law enforcement, learn how to take photos and videos of those messages. This won’t stop the messages from being sent or stop you from reading them, but it may help the police stop the sender.
How to cancel sending a message
- Compose and send the message normally.
- When sent, press and hold the message itself.
- From the menu that opens, select Undo Send.
You must do this within two minutes of sending the message or the feature will be lost.
Unsending will delete the message from both your iPhone and the recipient’s iPhone. And you’ll both also get a notification in iMessage that a message hasn’t been sent.
You should also note that if your contact is using iOS 15 or earlier, you won’t be able to unsend them a message, and your message will remain in their iMessage.
Despite the above caveat, if you have more than one iPhone, you can use one with iOS 15 or older, so you can keep all messages sent to you on that device, while The other shows all iMessage not sending notifications.
Also note that these features are only for internal Apple messages and will not work with regular text messages or SMS. It won’t work if your audience is also using Android.
How to edit messages after sending
- Compose and send the message normally.
- When sent, press and hold the message itself.
- Select Edit option from the opened menu.
- Make any corrections you need.
- Tap Send to resend the message.
- You can also change your mind again and go back to your original message. Just tap the close button on the left side of the message and above the keyboard.
Finally, you have up to 15 minutes to edit a sent message and you can only do so up to five times.
Of course, this would not be the way to promise someone a thousand dollars and then change it to one dollar. An edit reminder will be displayed for you and your recipient. When one of you taps on it, the messages will show the previous version or versions you sent.
These restrictions ultimately prevent anyone from abusing iMessage, and many will thank Apple for that.
