Facebook Is Now Letting You Delete Those Messages You Really Regret Sending, If You’re Quick
Finally.
Long rumoured, long wanted: Facebook Messenger finally has the option to let you unsend messages, meaning, if you’re quick, you’ll be able to fix that typo or redirect that gossip to the person who was actually meant to see it.
If you think this isn’t a new feature, we hate to be the bearer of bad news: yes, Facebook Messenger has long let you ‘delete’ messages, but they are only deleted from your chat log, not the other person’s. How does it work?
Well, once you’ve felt the unmistakable sinking feeling of immediate regret, you have 10 minutes to delete your message. When you tap on it via the Messenger App for iOS or Android, two options will appear: the previously available ‘Remove For You’, and ‘Remove For Everyone’.
Credit: Facebook.
Be warned — it won’t disappear without a trace, though. Instead, it’ll be replaced with text explaining that a message was removed. Still, you can just pretend it was a pocket send, rather than the long-winded love letter you sent to the wrong ‘Martin’.
And if a distressing or harmful message is sent then deleted, you’ll still be able to report it for a ‘limited time’, as you can any other conversation.
The ‘unsend’ feature has been around for a long time, but not to the public. As The Verge report, last April we learnt that CEO Mark Zuckerberg can delete messages.
When users expressed disappointment that Facebook granted more power to higher-up users, Facebook announced they would limit Zuckerberg’s powers until they could offer it to everyone else.
The feature has been rolled out in the US for iOS and Android, but when Junkee attempted to update their iOS Messenger this morning, no update was yet available.
When contacted, Facebook representatives told us Australians should have access to the unsend button “over the next few days”.
In the meantime, try to not send anything too stupid.