Tired of WhatsApp typos? 15 minutes. This is the maximum time you can edit text on WhatsApp. The long-awaited new update was announced this week. How to use it ?
A new feature to edit your messages on WhatsApp
typos? A poorly expressed thought? missing information? On May 22nd, WhatsApp officially announced a new edit button so you can edit your messages!
WhatsApp has long allowed users to delete messages. Technically, it is already possible to correct typos by deleting the posted message and resending it. But deleting a post replaces it with a “This post has been deleted” notice, which is not a very convenient feature.
Hence, in a blog post the messaging app announced:
“From fixing a simple spelling mistake to adding additional context to a message, we’re excited to give you more control over your chats.” All you have to do is long press on the sent message and after fifteen minutes choose ‘Edit’ from the menu.
To edit a message on WhatsApp, follow these steps:
- Open WhatsApp on your Android phone or iPhone;
- Open the WhatsApp conversation in which you want to edit the message you sent;
- Long press on the message you want to edit;
- On Android, select the pencil icon from the top toolbar. On iOS, choose the Edit option from the menu that appears. You can now modify the sent message;
- To confirm that you edited the message, tap the checkmark next to the text entry.
Modified messages will be marked as “Modified” so that recipients know that the content has been modified. If you use WhatsApp for some private conversations, consider using Chat Lock in WhatsApp to add another layer of security to them.
The recipient of the message will therefore see that it has been modified, but will not be able to see the entire revision history. Changes made, as well as all private messages, media files and calls, are protected by end-to-end encryption.
whatsapp will lag behind other apps
The new feature is similar to last year’s update from Apple that let users edit and unsend messages between iPhones. Like Apple, edited messages in WhatsApp will be marked with a tag to alert the recipient that the chat has been edited.
This feature is already present in Telegram and Signal as well. Same with Twitter. Followers of Twitter Blue, the paid version, can edit a tweet for up to 30 minutes after sending it. While the time limit for editing a message isn’t as generous as Telegram’s 48-hour window, it’s still better than nothing.
“Tweeting will be more accessible and less stressful. You should be able to participate in conversations in a way that makes sense to you and we will continue to work on ways that allow you to do this seamlessly.” said Twitter in a blog post at the time.
The WhatsApp blog notes that the feature has already rolled out globally and will be available to all users “in the coming weeks”. This feature will be made available to 2 billion users of WhatsApp in the coming weeks. It counts India as its biggest market with 487 million users.