- You can now unsend and edit texts with Apple's new iOS 16 update.
- You can access the edit and unsend buttons by holding down a text after you send it.
This week marked a significant milestone in iPhone history: the debut of the option to rescind and fix embarrassing texts and typo-riddled messages.
Apple announced in June that its fall software update, iOS 16, would allow users to unsend and edit texts. It became available to download on Monday.
I installed it on Wednesday, and the first feature I tried out was changing my messages after sending, a feat that felt so foreign and fun on my iPhone that I'm convinced it's one of Apple's neatest software updates to date.
Here's how it went.
I started by editing texts
I sent a simple text to someone giving them a heads up that I was trying the new feature out on them. After I sent it, I held down the message, and there were two new options for me to choose: "Undo Send" and "Edit."
I added "Okay wow this really cool," ironically making a typo in the edited version and forgetting the "is." Oh well.
I decided to use other group chats as guinea pigs and sent a message in one to see what they thought of me editing it. But one of my friends noted that it doesn't appear as an edited text — both the original message and another bubble of words appear, with the latter including the edited copy. It looked clunky.
My friend sent me a screenshot so I could see what it looks like from her point of view. It turns out that she did not yet have iOS 16 downloaded on her iPhone, so it may only appear that way until she and others in the group chat install it.
Sure enough, I sent a message and then edited it to someone else who already had the update installed, and it appeared as one text block, with a blue "Edited" banner right beneath it.
Then I tried unsending a message
I sent a text to someone before holding down the message and selecting the "Undo Send" button. A banner appeared that read "You unsent a message. Steven may still see the message on devices where the software hasn't been updated."
The alert made sense when he told me that he could still see the message I unsent on his laptop, which is also connected to his iMessage account. The text was indeed gone from his phone though, since he had installed iOS 16 already.
It's a fresh feature for the Apple ecosystem
The new features don't mean that all proof of your typos and go-backs is erased — labels still tell your recipient if something's been unsent or edited. You also can't reap the full benefits of the features until everyone you text installs the new update, which will likely happen soon.
And the features, of course, aren't available if you're communicating with Android users and their green-colored bubbles, as NPR and other outlets reported.
Apple also isn't the only platform that offers these features — Google lets users unsend emails, and Slack users have had that capability for a while now.
But being able to amend texts on my iPhone still feels like a novelty.
It's a notable evolution in the world of texting, far from the no-take-back flip phone messaging of yore.