iOS 16 brings with it quite a few changes, with the most apparent ones coming via the Lock Screen. Apple is finally giving iPhone users the ability to customize their devices in more ways, and we’re here for it. But there are some other useful changes coming to iOS 16 that we’re also excited for.
If you’re a Twitter user, chances are that you’ve heard about, or wanted to, have the ability to edit a Tweet after it’s been sent. Currently, the only way to “edit” a tweet is to just delete the original and send another. But for iPhone users, you didn’t even have that option, and with iOS 16, you are getting the ability to do both.
We’ve previously covered how you can “unsend” messages, but iOS 16 also makes it possible to edit messages on iPhone. As you would expect, there are some limitations, such as this only being available when using iMessage. But if you find yourself in an awkward situation with a message you didn’t mean to send or a comical typo, here’s how you can edit messages on iPhone:
Open the Messages app on your iPhone.
Select the conversation from the list on the main screen.
Locate the message that you want to edit.
Long-press the message.
From the drop-down menu, tap Edit.
Make the necessary changes to the message.
Tap the blue checkmark icon to the right of the bubble.
You won’t have to worry about sending another message instead of just editing the original one. But the users on the other end of the message, along with yourself, will see a slight change. Instead of just seeing “Delivered” below the message, this will show “Edited”. It’s just a way for Apple to make it so that everyone in the conversation knows when a message has been changed. Currently, there’s no way to see what the un-edited message was, but perhaps that will arrive in a future update.
Edit Messages: Things You Should Know
The biggest question you might have in regards to the ability in iOS 16 to edit messages is how long of a window has Apple implemented? According to Apple following the WWDC ’22 Keynote, iOS 16 users will have a 15-minute window to unsend messages. There has been some debate about whether this is too long or too short, but it definitely puts Apple in an interesting place.
In the event that you are running iOS 16, you also might be wondering about what happens when you want to edit messages sent to an Android user. For the time being at least, if you send a message to an Android user, you will not be able to edit messages. We tried this with an iPhone 13 Pro Max running the latest iOS 16 Developer Beta and a Pixel 6 Pro running Android 13 Beta 4.
Perhaps both of those scenarios will change in the future, but there are definitely going to be some limitations when messaging non-iMessage users. We’re still keeping our fingers crossed that those limitations will become a thing of the past, but for now, it’s not looking great.
Andrew is a freelance writer based on the East Coast of the US.
He has written for a variety of sites over the years, including iMore, Android Central, Phandroid, and a few others. Now, he spends his days working for an HVAC company, while moonlighting as a freelance writer at night.
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