WhatsApp may soon let you edit messages after sending them

Editing a WhatsApp message once it is sent is impossible, but WhatsApp is working on a solution to this with a new edit feature. The feature will let you edit messages once they’re sent, letting you correct anything from silly typos to wrong information.

A new report by WABetaInfo suggests that the edit message feature may soon come to beta versions of the app. The feature will also bring Facebook-owned WhatsApp up to speed with Telegram, which already offers users the ability to edit messages once they’re sent.

As per multiple reports, WhatsApp started working on the feature five years ago but the plan was scrapped later on. Now, the instant messaging platform is working again on the edit message button.

Currently, if a WhatsApp user sends a message with a mistake, they have only two options to rectify it. They can either send out a correct message and ask users to ignore the one with the error, or they can delete the wrong message and send out a new once. Either way, a second, new message must be sent.

It seems the feature will come as a dedicated button in the top bar, showing up alongside the options to copy text and forward the message when a message is long pressed.

Will you be able to tell if messages have been edited?
A large concern people talk about when any social platform offers the ability to change what you have sent/posted is the awareness aspect. Will people be able to tell that a particular message has been edited and is not what was originally sent? For WhatsApp, the answer seems to be a ‘no’.

“Probably there won’t be an edit history to check previous versions of edited messages, but since this feature is under development, their plans may change before releasing the feature,” the WAbetaInfo report said, suggesting that edited messages could look just like regular unedited messages.

The report also mentioned that details about the time-window users will get to edit a message that has already been sent is “unknown at the moment.” The report adds that the edit button will first make it to the iOS and Desktop beta builds. However, we expect it to come to Android beta builds also later on. Either way, it will likely be quite some time before we see the feature on stable versions.