Today, WhatsApp announced that it is adding the capability of editing your text messages on the application. The new feature is a good tool to help users make changes and edit typos or unwanted information that they sent to other WhatsApp users.
Around last week, there were reports that such a capability will be added to WhatsApp, and we saw a gradual rollout to WhatsApp beta users who got to test the feature beforehand. WhatsApp Web Beta users and WhatsApp Android Beta users both reported similar capabilities where users could edit their text messages following the same procedure regardless of the device they used.
The news of this feature being under development for Android first came out in June 2022. Afterwards, there were reports from as early as November last year that WhatsApp is working on such a feature on iOS devices as well.
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 21, 2023
While the feature is useful, it has a time limit attached to it. Users can edit their sent messages within a time frame of 15 minutes after sending the text. To edit a message, one needs to long-press the text and select the ‘Edit’ option to make the desired changes. Messages that have been edited will have ‘edited’ written on the bottom corner of the sent text.
WhatsApp also added that any edits the sender makes will be end-to-end encrypted, just like the media and calls users share and make. The blog post mentions:
“For the moments when you make a mistake, or simply change your mind, you can now edit your sent messages. 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 available starting today and will be accessible on more devices globally in the coming weeks.