WhatsApp has announced the introduction of an editing feature for sent messages. The feature will help fix typos and any miscommunication in messages, but it comes with an important caveat.
WhatsApp Now Lets You Edit Sent Messages
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the feature in his Instagram broadcast channel on 22 May 2023, while WhatsApp published a blog post announcing the feature. The company had teased the feature on social media before the official announcement.
"For the moments when you make a mistake, or simply change your mind, you can now edit your sent messages," the company said in its post.
With the feature, users can simply long-press on a sent message in a chat and select the edit option to change the text of their message. But WhatsApp has implemented a time limit of 15 minutes. So if that time has elapsed, you won't be able to edit the message anymore.
Edited messages will have a label to note that the content has been changed. This is similar to the labeling that appears when editing tweets on Twitter. One important difference though is that WhatsApp will not show you the full revision history of the message.
The feature is rolling out globally, with all users expected to have access to the feature in the weeks following the announcement. So if you want to get access to the feature, make sure to keep WhatsApp updated.
Why Is WhatsApp Allowing You to Edit Messages?
The edit feature appears to be aimed mostly at correcting typos and adding extra context to messages. These are some of the use cases WhatsApp pointed to in its announcement.
However, it also lets users change their mind if they send a message without thinking. Of course, WhatsApp also lets you delete a message in this case, so long as you request deletion within two days.
The time limit to edit a tweet is much shorter. This is likely to prevent confusion from messages being edited long after they've been read by the recipient.
Say Goodbye to Typos on WhatsApp
This is another quality-of-life feature that makes the WhatsApp experience smoother. Hopefully more useful features will continue to be added to the app in future.