The iMessage Life-Preserving Update

iMessage lifesaving tricks for iPhone users
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Morgann

Apple’s latest iOS update has finally tossed out a lifejacket, saving us from us from the sinking feeling of an iMessage sent too soon.

Again, these life-preserving tactics are features of the newest iPhone operating system release, iOS 16. Which, in this case, requires that both sender and recipient to have their iPhone software up to date. The end result may appear differently if the receiver has not been diligent about their software updates. I’ll circle back to pick up this topic later. First, let’s dive in to the update.

Gone are the days of treading against the weight in your chest after sending a hasty iMessage. You can now edit an iMessage that has already been sent. That’s right. Apple has granted us a 15 minute grace period where you can revise an already sent iMessage. If the recipient is also running iOS 16 or higher, the revised text will replace that of the original. If they are slacking on the update, they will instead receive a new message with the revised text along with a notice that states that the message has been edited. Just make sure to make your edits as soon as possible to avoid them seeing the error or missing the window of opportunity (which again, is 15 minutes!)

And if you’re drowning with dread in the wake of something you wish you could take back entirely, fear not. You can even unsend the message entirely. But you’ll again want to make haste, for the grace period is just a mere 2 minutes for un-sending.

To use these lifesaving tactics:

Select the message by pressing on it until a menu pops up. You should see the gesture icons on top of the message and a menu below where you’ll find “Reply”, “Undo Send”, and “Edit”, along with some other actions like “Copy”.

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If you want to edit the message, select “Edit”. Correct the message, which will appear in the text box again as if you were just writing it. Once you’re satisfied with your corrections, tap on the blue checkmark to replace the old message with the newly corrected message.

If you want to unsend an iMessage entirely, follow the previous example to the menu and select “Unsend” instead. If the recipient is up to date, the message will disappear with a satisfying popping noise. If they’re behind on their updates, they will receive a notice that that message has been unsent, however it will still remain in the thread. Remember to do so quickly — 2 minutes can go by fast in such dire circumstances.

One last thing, you may have noticed the heavy use of the term “iMessage” which is the messaging system specific for inter-iPhone communications. These messages appear in blue in the Messages app. Message threads that appear in green are SMS messages which are not afforded these luxuries as they do not run on Apple specific communication pathways.

I hope that these easy to use iPhone tricks will help keep your head above water next time your iMessages go overboard. Thanks for catching up with Making Your iPhone Work For You on The Internet Patrol.

iMessage lifesaving tricks for iPhone users

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