Soon, you’ll be able to edit your Whatsapp messages
(Picture: PA Archive)Typos in WhatsApp messages are a daily annoyance. Autocorrect tries its best but, if you have ever found your phone inserting the word “ducking” when you meant to say something a bit more profane, you’ll know that it’s not foolproof.
Currently, if you make a mistake in a WhatsApp message, it’s sent and there’s little you can do about it. Your only options are to delete the offending message — leaving a weird gap on the receiver’s phone — or correct yourself with a tail-between-the-legs follow-up.
But it looks like the Meta-owned company is planning a third option in the near future. WABetaInfo has been digging into WhatsApp’s latest beta software for iPhone and found that users will soon be able to edit messages after they’ve been sent.
The feature is found in the context menu that appears when you long-press a message — the same spot where the likes of Forward, Reply, and Star currently appear. Just long-press a message, tap Edit, and tinker away.
There are a few limits to this, however. First of all, any edited message will come with a small label with the word “Edited” next to it, which is a sensible precaution against those intent on gaslighting their contacts.
Secondly, in its current implementation, editing messages is only an option in the 15 minutes immediately after sending. This is a generous window and frankly, if you don’t spot a typo within 15 minutes of sending, you likely never will.
Finally, editing messages is currently only an option for text messages, with no support for captions of images, videos, or documents.
Like the upcoming ability to message yourself, for now this is a feature in its early stages and WABetaInfo says it’s only going to be rolling out to some beta users to begin with. But the fact that it’s this far along suggests it won’t be too long before you can afford to be a bit more careless with your WhatsApp messaging.
