WhatsApp will allow users to amend texts within 15 minutes.
WhatsApp claims it will allow users to modify messages, matching a feature given by competitors like Telegram and Discord.
According to the company, messages can be modified for up to 15 minutes after they are sent.The instant messaging service is owned by Meta, the same company that owns Facebook and Instagram.In the following weeks, the capability will be made available to WhatsApp’s 2 billion users. With 487 million users, India is its largest market.
“From correcting a simple misspelling to adding extra context to a message, we’re excited to bring you more control over your chats,” the messaging service wrote on Monday in a blog post.
“All you need to do is long-press on a sent message and choose ‘Edit’ from the menu for up to fifteen minutes after,” it added.
Edited messages will be labelled “edited” so that recipients are aware that the content has been altered.
They will not, however, be shown how the message has evolved through time.
Steps to edit a message as shared by WhatsApp
WhatsApp’s launch comes after chat providers Telegram and Signal made the capability available.
Facebook, the social networking platform, launched the edit tool about a decade ago.
Around the same time, Facebook revealed that more than half of its users used mobile phones to access the site, which are more prone to typing errors.
Modified updates on Facebook are labelled as altered. Users can also view a history of the edits.
Last year, Elon Musk’s social media platform Twitter announced that it will allow paying subscribers to alter their tweets.
Tweets can be updated several times within 30 minutes of posting.
“Tweeting will feel more approachable and less stressful,” Twitter said at the time in a blog post.
“You should be able to participate in the conversation in a way that makes sense to you, and we’ll keep working on ways to make it feel effortless to do just that,” the platform stated.