Google could be developing a new feature for its Messages app that would allow you to edit a message after it has been sent, according to code detected by ElSpAndroid. References to the feature first appeared in a beta version of the app on November 19, and there are four flags that appear to reference it, although trying to enable them does nothing.
Evidence of the feature in development has emerged as support for message editing is becoming increasingly common in other messaging apps. Apple added the option for iMessage users to edit sent messages with iOS 16 last year and WhatsApp launched a similar feature in early 2023. In both cases, you have a limited amount of time to edit sent messages: two minutes for iMessage and 15 for WhatsApp. Both services also let you delete messages after sending them, but that doesn't seem to be the case with Google's version.
A Google representative did not immediately respond to The edgeRequest for comment, and it's unclear how the company's own implementation of the feature might eventually work. We don't know if there will be a time limit on editing messages, for example, or if a recipient will be able to see an editing history. But a code snippet detected by ElSpAndroid suggests that the feature will work in conjunction with the RCS messaging protocol: “original_rcs_messages_id”.
