© Pixabay Unsend |
By Stan Horaczek, Popular Science
There are lots of reasons someone might want to un-send a message on one of the many messaging apps that currently populate your smartphone and computer. Maybe there’s a typo in the message you just sent to a potential employer or you wanted to complain about a co-worker putting fish in the office microwave— and sent it to the wrong person. Just this week, Facebook recently introduced an upcoming feature that allows users a short window of time in which they can recall messages sent through Messenger. It’s not the magical tool that lets you go in and nuke old messages from past conversations like Mark Zuckerberg reportedly enjoys, but it’s a start.
Here’s a quick guide to recalling messages on some of the most popular communication apps. Some are easier than others, and some are downright impossible.
Facebook Messenger
With the 191.0 release of Facebook Messenger in the Apple App Store, users will have a 10 minute window to recall what they sent. The feature comes just a few months after some controversy about whether Facebook was deleting messages from CEO Mark Zuckerberg from other people’s inboxes. Until the update, you can delete a message you send on your own device, but the recipient’s version of your conversation remains untouched.If you unsend a message with the new feature, however, it will disappear from the recipient’s feed, as long as you do it within that 10 minute window just after sending.
Pulling back an Instagram message might be the easiest out of the bunch. Select the conversation and go to the message, then tap and hold until a menu pops up and you can push “unsend.” It disappears from both users’ histories.
Gmail
Google’s ubiquitous email service offers you a chance to grab that flawed message you just sent with a feature called Undo Send. Your send confirmation comes with a “message sent” confirmation as well as an option to “undo,” which will attempt to recall the mail. You only get roughly 10 seconds to regret and recall your bad decision, so move quicklyEarlier this year, Google made this recall feature available through the Android version of the Gmail app as well. It will show up in a black bar at the bottom of the screen just after you push send.