Edited iMessages in iOS 16 Now Display Original Text, Undo Send Limited to Two Minutes

[compwiz1202]

I know. People are bent out of shape because the feature doesn’t do exactly what they want. See how that goes both ways?

But people are insulting each other over it instead of just arguing their side about the feature.

 

[nwcs]

But people are insulting each other over it instead of just arguing their side about the feature.

Quoth the internet…

 

[ohk]

Why should someone be able to see the edits? I changed it so you wouldn't see what I typed.

Two reasons you'd edit a message:

1) Something innocent like a typo, change of plans you have, sent wrong information, etc.
In this case, you'd have no reason to want to hide the edits you made.

2) Something malicious like you're cyberbullying somebody and want to change messages to look innocent
In this case, I don't feel bad for the fact that you can't edit your message.

 

[Dark_Omen]

So your argument here is that if you abuse someone over text or email you think it’s unfair that they can in turn “slander” you by holding your “mistake” against you.

This is a wild idea here that’s never really been tested out before so take my suggestion with a grain of salt but what if you tried, oh I don’t know, apologizing to someone who you hurt with your words rather than asking apple for a magic eraser to hide behind? Also, another total shot in the dark here, but you could try considering other people’s feelings rather than obsessing over managing your reputation and maybe you might just be more considerate with your words and not lash out and then later regret what you said.

The situation doesn’t apply just to abusing messages. Maybe you sent a text to your boss that you didn’t mean to send to them, but meant to send it to someone else? Sure, let me get fired because I meant to send a text to my wife and accidentally sent it to my boss... Sure. Or wait, maybe I should just be able to delete/edit it — save my job and then go back and send the text to my wife before my boss even sees the message.

I absolutely think unread messages should be allowed to be edited and deleted. If the person on the other end never receives the message and it gets edited/deleted, where is the negative behind that? The person didn’t receive the message and doesn’t know it ever existed. I’d rather allow people to delete messages before they’re read and prevent “alarm” in the first place than to allow someone to read something threatening and then report it after the fact. Time to allow for a more proactive response than a reactive one. Why would we rather allow people to receive threatening messages and create a panic rather than allowing someone to delete it beforehand to avoid the entire situation in the first place?

What about females, especially minors? If they sent a naked picture to the wrong person or regret it a few minutes after the fact - do you think it’s better to allow the female to delete the photo before it’s seen, or do you think we shouldn’t allow such a capability and let her photo be plastered all over the internet and her school?

The subject requires a bit deeper thought than you’re showing.

 

[cocky jeremy]

What makes it an opinion that is extreme is obvious when you literally say “It's stupid and pointless.” To even say that is based on “facts and information” is ridiculous. It’s an opinion based on your own desired feature set. Has nothing to do with “facts and information”.

It's a fact because it is literally a useless feature that services absolutely no purpose at all. You edit a text to fix a mistake and clean up the text by not having multiple texts correcting a typo. If they show the typo too, there's literally no reason to use it. Just send a second text fixing the typo.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Two reasons you'd edit a message:

1) Something innocent like a typo, change of plans you have, sent wrong information, etc.
In this case, you'd have no reason to want to hide the edits you made.

2) Something malicious like you're cyberbullying somebody and want to change messages to look innocent
In this case, I don't feel bad for the fact that you can't edit your message.

If I'm bullying someone, why do I give a **** that they see what I said?

 

[ian87w]

I think Apple should just scrap this feature, rather than trying to complicate things.

 

[chevyboy60013]

What's the point of having an "Edit" option if it's going to show the original text?

Apple should give users permission to add that feature into the messages app. Otherwise, it should not show the user has made any changes by default.

this is very true, there is absolutely no reason to edit the text if the person can still see what was written before it was edited. Something tells me the government required that to be possible.

 

[nwcs]

It's a fact because it is literally a useless feature that services absolutely no purpose at all. You edit a text to fix a mistake and clean up the text by not having multiple texts correcting a typo. If they show the typo too, there's literally no reason to use it. Just send a second text fixing the typo.

That still isn’t a fact but an assertion based on an opinion. Whatever dude, no one said you had to use it or not use it

 

[cocky jeremy]

That still isn’t a fact but an assertion based on an opinion. Whatever dude, no one said you had to use it or not use it

Keep on believing that non feature is accomplishing something.

 

[_Spinn_]

Hahahhaa! It does seem very strange. Don't tell me if it has to do with CSAM.

Yikes, I hope not but that's a good point.

 

[kc9hzn]

But as long as the recipent never views it, they should never see the original. And Would you like a raise? could still be sexuallty explicit.

Exactly, it could be used as a piece of evidence even as is, along with other evidence, of quid pro quo sexual harassment.

 

[Radeon85]

The edit feature is 100% useless then as it is, may as well leave it and send a new one if the recipient can see the history. Nice job Apple, 1 step forward 2 steps back.

 

[Shh]

What’s the point of this if you can just unsend the text entirely and send a new one?

 

[Radeon85]

legal reasons this makes better sense actually…

If it's legal reasons what makes it different to editing as we have always done, here for example or on facebook, youtube etc. If you reply to this I can just edit my comments so you would never see the original text.

 

[jezbd1997]

If it's legal reasons what makes it different to editing as we have always done, here for example or on facebook, youtube etc. If you reply to this I can just edit my comments so you would never see the original text.

text messages is different. every single person uses the messages app on their phone. and it’s more personal where more private info is normally shared.
would much more likely to be abused

 

[hyperbolic]

This is almost certainly to keep Apple from getting a subpoena for someone’s message history every single time someone wants to use a message history with edit annotations as evidence in a legal proceeding or court. Abusive lover sending threatening texts and then editing them afterward. No way for the recipient to display the edits would turn into hundreds to thousands of legal requests to Apple a week.

And let’s be real here for a minute… There are an awful lot of people butthurt over the fact that there is a non zero chance someone might hit a button and reveal their embarrassing typo. Somehow that is more concerning to them than the almost certain possibility for this feature to be abused in order to hurt others. Only being able to edit unread messages doesn’t work either as someone could easily see the message in a notification before taking an action that would mark it read.

If that ruins it for you, don’t use it. Simple. It’s still a useful tool for making a conversation clearer/easier to follow.

You’ve actually made an excellent point here that has caused me to change my mind.

 

[hyperbolic]

They can read it as a notification workout actually clicking into it and marking it Read.

Very true. Even more reason to drop the edit message feature in my opinion. As far as unsend, I still see a few valid use cases for that in business environments. And, unsend sort of obsoletes edit feature. Instead of allowing edits, just allow Unsend and ask the user if they wish to compose a new message with the unsent text auto pasted into the new message compose box to be modified and re-sent.