Apple announced new iMessage features at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference including the ability to edit and undo sent messages.
Apple has announced new iMessage features that will allow users to edit, undo, and mark messages as unread after they’ve been sent. The annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is held every year at the Apple headquarters in California to preview the new offerings to be released later in the year. As the name suggests, the festivities are centered around developers and software releases. However, there are occasional hardware announcements that usually directly relate to Apple software or services. At WWDC 2022, the next version of iOS was announced, and some of the most important changes are within the Messages app.
The WWDC event was held at Apple Park, the company’s flagship headquarters in California that took billions of dollars to create. It is here where the company not only designs and develops its products and services, but also where it unveils those products and services to the world. For the last two WWDC events, the keynote was pre-recorded with engaging cinematography, providing a behind-the-scenes look at Apple’s headquarters. This year’s event was partially held in-person, with select attendees able to watch the event in an outdoor location at Apple Park. However, it was also simulcast on the company’s website so that all could stay up-to-date on the latest releases.
iMessage is set to receive an overhaul in iOS 16, the next full version of Apple’s mobile software slated for release in the fall. New software releases are usually announced at WWDC in June, and undergo a lengthy period of testing before they reach the public. The first round of testing is the Developer Beta Software Program, which involves certified Apple developers testing the software and reporting any bugs or issues to the company. Then, there is a Public Beta Software Program, where the average user can test-drive the new version of iOS before it is released, and similarly can report bugs or other issues. After these rounds of testing, the software is released to the public shortly after the Apple September event that is held annually.
Users Can Edit, Delete, And Unread IMessages
The three new features that will be added to iMessage in iOS 16 — the ability to edit, undo, and unread iMessages — can all be easily accessed through the interaction menu on an iMessage. This is a menu that is already accessible on iMessage today, but won’t receive the updates until iOS 16 is released in the fall. Currently, a long press on an iMessage will bring up an interaction menu where users can interact with the message in a variety of ways. Users can tapback to the message, reply to the message, copy the message, translate the message, or delete it. In iOS 16, there will be three new buttons inside that menu: edit, undo send, and mark as unread.
The additions are highly-requested features that function as might be expected by their names. The edit button will allow users to fix spelling, grammar, and content issues in an iMessage after it has already been sent. Once an iMessage has been edited, an ‘Edited‘ badge will appear next to the ‘Delivered‘ badge, to let the recipient know the iMessage was changed. The undo send button will remove an iMessage after it has been sent, but it is unclear how quickly a user must undo a sent iMessage in order for it to be removed. Finally, the mark as unread button will remove a read receipt from a message, even if a user has already seen it. More information about the changes to iMessage will become known as the software is tested, but the new features figure to be a game-changer for iMessage power users.
