WhatsApp has finally launched its edit button. The announcement answers the long-standing demand of the feature by its users.
– Key points to note
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, announced the new feature in a post. However, the feature will be functional within 15 minutes of sending the message.
“For the moments when you make a mistake, or simply change your mind, you can now edit your sent messages,” WhatsApp said in a blog post.
Meta expressed its excitement about giving users more control over their chats, enabling them to correct spelling mistakes or provide additional context to their messages.
To use the new tool, a user simply long-presses on a sent message and choose ‘Edit’ from the menu.
“Edited messages will display ‘edited’ alongside them, so your friends will be aware of the correction, although they won’t be able to see the edit history,” the company said.
“As with all personal messages, media and calls, your messages and the edits you make are protected by end-to-end encryption,” WhatsApp added.
– Learn more
This new feature streamlines the process of rectifying errors or adding information, eliminating the need to delete the entire message or send a separate correction.
Previously, WhatsApp users were limited to either deleting a message entirely or sending a separate correction. Last year, the messaging app extended the time limit for deleting a message from 48 hours to 60 hours, giving users a slightly longer window for making corrections.
– Why this matters
WhatsApp’s competitors, such as Telegram and Signal, have long offered the ability to edit messages. WhatsApp is the most popular of the three in Nigeria.
Apple also introduced message editing and unsending features for iMessage with iOS 16. Twitter implemented an edit button for its paid users last year.
While WhatsApp’s 15-minute time limit for editing messages may not be as generous as Telegram’s 48-hour window, it is still a significant improvement.
According to Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, the feature is currently being rolled out to users and will be available to everyone in the coming weeks.
Users can look forward to enjoying the newfound convenience and control over their conversations on the popular messaging platform.
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