It was reported last year that Google is working on a feature to edit sent messages in its Google Messages app for Android. The message editing feature is expected to arrive soon as Google has started testing it in beta with some users.
X user @Jhowkira2000 posted some screenshots (spotted by @AssembleDebug), claiming that the message editing feature is available on some of their and their friends" devices in beta.
Google has started testing the message editing feature in Google Messages which means it could arrive soon.
— AssembleDebug (@AssembleDebug) May 10, 2024
I shared about it back in February on my blog - https://t.co/gfZu1OAiHI
The editing time limit seems to be changed to 15 minutes now. #Google #Android https://t.co/jK7rNu3FXt
It is possible to edit a sent message in Google Messages by long-pressing a message and then tapping on the pencil icon at the top of the screen. The user noted that the window to edit a message is 15 minutes at the moment.
Earlier this year, AssembleDebug got an early view of the underdevelopment feature by enabling a flag in the Google Messages app. The Android tipster reported that the time limit to edit a sent message was 30 minutes.
While the edited message lives in the main conversation thread, you can still view the original message in the details. Moreover, message editing only seems to work if users on both ends of the conversation have the feature on their device, according to the X user.
The ability to edit sent messages is already available on other messaging apps. For instance, Meta"s WhatsApp and Apple"s iMessage let you make changes to your messages up to 15 minutes after sending them. Meanwhile, Telegram has offered message editing functionality since 2016.
Apart from that, Google is working on other updates for Google Messages such as a new toggle button that will let you disable "expressive animations" in the app.