Meta’s popular messaging service, WhatsApp, is bringing an iMessage-like editing feature. You can now edit your WhatsApp messages for up to 15 minutes after sending them.
Apple introduced similar message-editing capabilities to iMessage with iOS 16. However, WhatsApp’s message editing implementation differs from iMessage in many ways.
Editing your sent messages in WhatsApp is easy
On WhatsApp, you can edit a sent message unlimited times for up to 15 minutes. The platform does not keep a revision history of the edits. However, an edited banner will appear beside the message to indicate its content was revised.
In comparison, while iMessage provides a similar 15-minute editing window for sent messages, it limits you to editing a message up to five times. It also keeps a revision history of your edits, so the recipient can see what you tweaked. Unlike on iMessage, though, you cannot edit sent WhatsApp messages from your PC or the web app.
Like iMessage, WhatsApp lets you unsend a sent message by deleting it.
WhatsApp vs. iMessage war is going to continue
The ability to edit sent messages in WhatsApp will help you quickly fix typos or other unintentional errors. It also brings feature parity between WhatsApp and iMessage in one key aspect. If you and your friends have been avoiding switching to WhatsApp from iMessage due to the lack of message editing, you now have one less excuse to make.
WhatsApp’s latest addition comes within days of the platform gaining the ability to hide and lock individual chats for additional security.
Apple can’t win the global messaging war with iMessage, with WhatsApp being its chief competitor outside the US. Meta has been rapidly adding new features to WhatsApp in the last few months to make the platform more attractive for users still sticking to iMessage. It will be interesting to see what improvements Apple introduces to iMessage with iOS 17 at WWDC23 to counter this.
