Facebook Messenger to introduce new 'delete sent messages' feature

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You’ll have only 10 minutes to do so

WhatsApp lets you do it – if you’ve sent a message by mistake, you’ve got a window of time within which you can delete it. Even Gmail gives users a few seconds to 'undo send'.

Facebook is finally following suit and adding the feature to its Messenger app. The announcement was discovered by Twitter user @MattNavarra as “coming soon” in the release notes of Messenger’s 191.0 version on iOS.

While Facebook-owned WhatsApp gives you an hour to delete sent messages, Messenger isn’t going to be so magnanimous. You’ll only have 10 minutes to redact that silly photo or drunken confession you just sent to the wrong person. 

Facebook began floating the idea of allowing sent messages to be deleted in April after the company was caught red-handed retracting messages sent by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other execs.

While the 10-minute window is rather unforgiving, the new feature will nonetheless be a welcome addition, although no specific time frame for the rollout has been announced.

[Via The Verge]

Sharmishta Sarkar
Sharmishta Sarkar
Managing Editor (APAC)

While she's happiest with a camera in her hand, Sharmishta's main priority is being TechRadar's APAC Managing Editor, looking after the day-to-day functioning of the Australian, New Zealand and Singapore editions of the site, steering everything from news and reviews to ecommerce content like deals and coupon codes. While she loves reviewing cameras and lenses when she can, she's also an avid reader and has become quite the expert on ereaders and E Ink writing tablets, having appeared on Singaporean radio to talk about these underrated devices. Other than her duties at TechRadar, she's also the Managing Editor of the Australian edition of Digital Camera World, and writes for Tom's Guide and T3.