How to Unsend and Edit Text Messages on Your iPhone

The most exciting iOS 16 feature released last year, in my opinion, was the ability to unsend and edit text messages on iPhones. I’ve had my fair share of sending the occasional messages to the wrong person or having a typo, but this feature has helped me to quickly correct my mistakes.

If you make a grammatical mistake or even text the wrong person, you have 15 minutes to edit what your message says and two minutes to unsend it, essentially deleting the text. Want to know more about how the feature works? We’ll explain it all below.

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.