Facebook’s Unsend Feature Will Give You 10 Minutes To Delete Message

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Brace yourself, the future has arrived. There is now a feature on Facebook Messenger which gives you 10 minutes to delete a message.

Forget the measly seven minutes offered by Whatsapp, in a new update coming soon from the messaging app, users will be able to delete any risky messages within 10 minutes of sending it.

So if you’ve ever sent a drunk message to an ex whose number you’ve momentarily unblocked, or sent your boss a risky message and immediately regretted it, this is your answer.

Twitter user Matt Navarra spotted the update, which Facebook claims is ‘coming soon’ to users with version 191.0 of Messenger’s iOS client.

The update reads:

Coming soon: Remove a message from a chat thread after it’s been sent. If you accidentally send the wrong photo, incorrect information or message the wrong thread, you can easily correct it by removing the message within ten minutes of sending it.

Dreamy. Although some would say 10 minutes isn’t really long enough to notice you’ve sent an embarrassing message – but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.

We haven’t been given any more details on how the feature will work or when it will roll out, but it’s fair to say it’s been a long time coming.

Ever since Whatsapp introduced the revolutionary ‘delete’ feature last year, people have been eagerly waiting for other social media apps to do the same.

Because let’s be honest, there’s nothing worse than sending a message, immediately regretting it and not being able to do anything about it.

Whatsapp’s feature enables users to delete any messages they send up to seven minutes after sending it and is called ‘delete for everyone’, whereas you used to be only able to delete your message for yourself.

Basically, it means you can delete a message within the timescale and the person won’t be able to read it – as long as the other person hasn’t already read it, obviously.

So there’s no way you can drunk text your ex at 4am and then wake up at midday and go ‘Hoo-boy, let’s get rid of that slobbery nonsense.’

Facebook

The same goes for Facebook Messenger’s new update – you will be restricted to a slightly longer 10 minute window, so you have to be pretty quick on the mark to delete any unwanted messages.

Happy texting, everyone!

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Lucy Connolly

A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).