How to unsend or edit an iMessage on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

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Did you make an iMessage mistake? In a short time, you can unsend or edit messages sent to other Apple users from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. It’s pretty much the same process on all platforms, which we’ll walk you through.

Note: To use this feature on iPad, you need iPadOS 16, which at the time of writing has been delayed until later in 2022. Once the update arrives and you install it on your iPad, you’ll be ready to start unsubmitting and editing. iMessages.

How to cancel sending a message

You can unsend or edit iMessages you’ve sent using any device, even if it’s not the device you used to send it (for example, unsending a message with your Mac that was originally sent from your iPhone). They must be messages sent between Apple users, using the iMessage service.

You can tell you’re using iMessage if sent messages appear with a blue bubble. You can’t edit green bubbles (or gray bubbles, which are incoming messages from other people).

Cancel sending or editing a message

To unsend a message, tap and hold the message (or click and hold on a Mac), then choose the “Undo Send” option that appears. When you cancel sending a message, the recipient will receive a small notification at the bottom of the screen indicating that the message has not been sent. Note, however, that if the recipient is using software older than iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or macOS 13 Ventura, Apple says that person can still receive the message.

Message not sent disclaimer

How to edit a message

To edit a message, tap and hold (or click and hold) a message and then choose “Edit” to change the content of the message.

Once the message has been edited, the recipient will see an “Edited” link next to their message. Tapping on this link will reveal previous versions of the message. This works best for correcting typos, rather than changing the intent of a message; cancel shipping is better for that.

Post edited disclaimer

Also, keep in mind that if the recipient didn’t update to iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or macOS 13 or later, they’ll simply receive a new message with the revised text.

Restrictions for unsending and editing messages

You have two minutes to unsend a message after you’ve sent it. This helps prevent abuse of the system by limiting its use to genuine errors, rather than giving users the ability to change the context of conversations.

The window to edit a message is a bit longer, 15 minutes. You can edit a post five times in total, so make your edits count. As stated, all edit history is saved with the message to prevent abuse of the system.

Doesn’t work for SMS

You can only unsend or edit messages sent to other Apple users, but it won’t work with messages sent to Android users that are displayed as green bubbles. This is because SMS messages are based on older protocols.

There are ways to access iMessage on Windows and Android, but they are not very practical. Apple has been slow to fix the issue of fixing iMessage reactions on Android, so we wouldn’t recommend holding your breath for native iMessage support anytime soon.

RELATED: How to use iMessage on Android and Windows

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