Meta-owned messaging app WhatsApp has finally added the ability for users to edit messages. People will be able to amend messages within 15 minutes of sending them, the company announced on Monday.
“For the moments when you make a mistake, or simply change your mind, you can now edit your sent messages,” WhatsApp said in a blog post. “From correcting a simple misspelling to adding extra context to a message, we’re excited to bring you more control over your chats.”
The feature is rolling out to users globally in the coming weeks. WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging app, with over two billion active users. Facebook, another Meta Platforms subsidiary, introduced the edit function more than a decade ago.
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How to edit a WhatsApp
To edit a sent message on WhatsApp, simply long-press on it and select “Edit.” You will then be able to make changes to the message before sending it again. Messages that have been edited will be labeled as such, so that recipients know the message has been altered.
As the messaging service illustrated in the step-by-step pictorial guide below, “edited messages will display ‘edited’ alongside them…without showing edit history.”
WhatsApp users have long requested a feature that allows them to edit sent messages – something that makes the app more convenient to use.
The new feature will be useful for correcting typos or making changes to messages that have been sent in error. It will also be helpful for businesses that use WhatsApp for customer service, as it will allow them to quickly fix mistakes in their responses.
More improvements
WhatsApp is not the first messaging app to offer the ability to edit messages. Telegram and Signal have both had this feature for some time. However, the addition is a big deal for WhatsApp given its size and popularity with both individual and corporate users.
IT’S HERE 📣 Message Editing is rolling out now.
You now get up to 15 minutes after sending a message to edit it. So you don’t have to worry if you duck it up 🦆 pic.twitter.com/JCWNzmXwVr
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 22, 2023
As MetaNews reported, the firm last week announced the launch of Chat Lock, a privacy feature that lets users hide their “most intimate conversations” within WhatsApp.
“Locking a chat takes that thread out of the inbox and puts it behind its own folder that can only be accessed with your device password or biometric, like a fingerprint,” it said in a blog post. “It also automatically hides the contents of that chat in notifications, too.”
Some users complained that WhatsApp was rushing things.
“Let’s be serious, WhatsApp. You announced locked chats, most of us still do not have it, now editing. Announce things that will roll out within the hour. This is poor planning on your part,” shouted one Twitter user.
and then