You’ve probably noticed a huge misspelling in a hastily sent message. Unfortunately, not all messaging apps offer post-correction. This is the case with WhatsApp, which surprisingly doesn’t currently have a feature to correct a message that has already been sent.
An editing function under test
Although it’s late at this point, the instant messaging application could be back in the running very quickly. For more than a year, WhatsApp has been working on an editing function to correct messages. But since then, this feature, which was tested in the Android version of the application, seems to have been shelved by WahtsApp’s developers. But new elements show that the developers are still working on it. WABetaInfo, a website that specializes in analyzing WhatsApp betas, found clues in the latest beta of the iOS app that indicate the imminent rollout of this editing feature. According to the elements detected, the application will impose a delay of just a few minutes to correct a message sent too quickly. A priori, you can no longer edit the messages sent after 15 minutes. A similar limitation as implemented by Apple with its iMessages. However, the editing function presented by WhatsApp should be less complete. It does not allow, at least for the moment, to access a correction history proposed by Apple. Messages in a conversation that have been corrected can only be identified by the “edited” flag.
Fixes incompatibility with older versions of WhatsApp
However, this functionality seems far from complete. In the latest beta version of the application for iOS, WhatsApp has added an on-screen alert system when you receive a message that has been edited but your application’s version is incompatible. The notification will therefore ask you to update your application, otherwise the edited messages will not be able to appear in the conversation.
© WABetaInfo
© WABetaInfoAlso, the functionality would currently only be compatible with text messaging. Unless WhatsApp looks into the matter, it seems impossible to correct the text associated with multimedia content you share.
The WhatsApp developers are busy. Earlier this week, the application updated to iOS inaugurated the Picture-in-Picture mode, which allows video calls to be viewed in a remote window when exiting the application. Recently, WABetaInfo also revealed that WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will allow you to create and subscribe to newsletters directly in the application.