How do you delete a sent text message

Important: You can only edit or delete a Google Chat message if you use Chat on a work or school account.

• You can edit or delete messages you sent in Google Chat.
  • Important: After you edit or delete a sent message, notifications may include the original message.
• You can't edit or delete messages from other people if you don't have the Space Manager role. Space Managers can only delete messages from others in certain Google Workspace account editions. Learn more about Space Managers.

Tips:

• To delete all messages in your copy of a conversation, you can delete a conversation.
• If you use a Google Workspace account, you can delete, but not edit a message from a bot.
• Deleted messages in a space might show a timestamp when they were deleted.
• If you’re in a space started by a Google Workspace account and you don’t belong to the same organization, you can’t delete messages from bots. 

Touch and hold your message, then tap one of the following:

• Edit: To confirm, tap Edit. Make your changes, then tap Send
  .
• Delete: To confirm, tap Delete.

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Android ComputeriPhone & iPad

iOS 16 comes with a lot of new features, and the flagship addition is a game-changer for the butterfingers among us.

iPhone users can now unsend their text messages. This lets you remotely delete a text message you've sent, even if the recipient has already seen it.

Here's how it works.

Note: Apple released iOS 16 on Sep. 12 — follow the instructions in our guide to update your iPhone now. 

How to unsend a message on your iPhone

Once you send an iMessage from your iPhone, you have 15 minutes to unsend it. Unsending your message will delete it from your phone and from any device you sent it to. In its place, you and the recipient will see a message saying that a message was removed.

Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks. You can only unsend iMessages — in other words, you can only unsend texts that you send to other Apple devices. This means that you can't unsend messages when texting an Android phone. 

Quick tip: You can tell whether a text message you send is an iMessage by checking the color of the message. If the texts you send are blue, they're iMessages. If the bubble is green, it's a regular SMS text message.

And even if you're texting another Apple device, they need to have updated to iOS 16 (or iPadOS 16 or macOS Ventura) for it to work on their end. Otherwise, unsending your message will delete it on your end but not theirs.

To unsend a message you've just sent, tap and hold your finger on the message. In the menu that opens, tap Undo Send.

Your text message will explode into blue dust. Once it's gone, everyone in the conversation will only see a notice saying that a message was deleted.

If you haven't updated to iOS 16 yet, here's how to download and install it on your iPhone and iPad. Other new features on iPhone include new lock screen customization options and Lockdown Mode.

Edit messages you've already sent

If you use messaging tools like Slack, you've likely edited at least one -- or 100 -- of the messages you've sent. Whether you made a typo or your message contains incorrect data, the editing feature is a nice way to make your corrections quickly. With iOS 16, you'll also be able to edit your messages sent from your iPhone within 15 minutes of sending.

To edit a text message, you'll need to launch Messages and go into any thread that is using iMessage, which you probably know as blue text. This feature will not work with SMS text messages (green texts). Now, press and hold your finger down on the message you wish to edit. This will bring up the Tapback reactions and the quick action menu. Finally, tap Edit. 

The text message will then become editable. You can delete the entire message, fix any mistakes or add more text to it. Once you're finished, hit the blue checkmark button on the right side to save your edits. You can only edit a single message up to 5 times.

An actionable Edited button will appear underneath your edited text message. The person on the other end will also know that the message has been edited, and if they tap on Edited, all previous versions of your text message will appear above the edited text message, in slightly grayed-out chat bubbles. 

Immediately recall any messages you accidentally sent

Accidental messages happen way too often. Maybe you tapped the send button when you meant to select an emoji. Or perhaps you messaged the wrong person entirely. In either case, you'll be able to recall those messages with iOS 16. Unlike with the edit message feature, you only have 2 minutes to unsend a text.

To unsend a text message, launch the Messages app, press and hold down on the message (blue text only) you want to unsend, and tap Undo Send.

The text message will disappear from your thread, on both your end and the recipient's. A message will appear on your thread, stating that your message has been unsent, but that the recipient may have already seen it.

Unfortunately, if the other person is running anything older than iOS 16, the message won't actually be unsent. The recipient will see a gray text status message that says, "[Name] unsent a message" if they've already viewed the text. This is similar to the Delete Message feature that apps like WhatsApp and Signal already have, which also show a similar message after a text is recalled.

And if you edit a text message that's been sent to someone running iOS 15 or earlier, they'll receive a text message for every edit you make.

Can you delete a text after it's already been sent?