Like other messaging applications, Google Messages now allows you to delete a message after sending it. A welcome function to avoid mistakes, but obviously limited to RCS.

Like other messaging applications, Google Messages now allows you to delete a message after sending it. A welcome function to avoid mistakes, but obviously limited to RCS.

You may have already sent a message to the bad person or regret it in the second after sending it. If you use WhatsApp, Messenger or Imessage, it is not very serious, since you have the possibility of canceling the sending of a message. On the other hand, on Google Messages, all you have to do is regret. Until then, the messaging application, installed as standard on many Android smartphones, did not have such an option. You had to be satisfied with the local deletion, that is to say only on your own device, or an editing function of the message. But the company was spotted last February working on this limitation when a code discovered in the APK suggested that Google Messages could integrate a function “delete for all” for SMS sent. As reported Android Authorityit started to be deployed, at least in beta version.

Note that cancellation will only be possible for messages sent to RCS and not for classic SMS and MMS. As a reminder, in the same way as a message sent via WhatsApp, an RCS message requires an Internet connection, unlike a text that uses a dedicated protocol via the telephone mobile network. A normal limitation insofar as the very old SMS protocol did not provide for this kind of option at all.

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The function is very similar to that used by WhatsApp. So when you delete a message in a conversation, it will be deleted for all members of the conversation. To do this, simply make a long support on the message concerned, press the basket icon, then select the “Delete for everyone” option. The other members of the conversation will then appear the mention “Message deleted by its author”.

Please note, the cancellation of messages will only be possible if sender and recipients use compatible versions. The recipients using old versions will continue to see the deleted messages appear. This limits the effectiveness of the function, but it may change later.

Obviously, this possibility of cancellation is not unlimited over time. Google messages requires, like its counterparts, a period of 15 minutes to delete a message sent. By comparison, the delay is two days on WhatsApp. Apple iMessage leaves only a few hours, as for Messenger, the deadline is limited a few minutes. We do not yet know the release date of this cancellation function.