Being able to edit a message even after it has been sent has been something both WhatsApp and iMessage users have been able to enjoy for quite some time. Since I swapped over from Android to iPhone, being able to edit my messages has been a godsend because iPhone autocorrect can be especially unforgiving to a lot of my slang when texting.
However, while I’ve been able to gleefully edit all my texts on WhatsApp and iMessage, my friends on the Google Messages app unfortunately have no such luck. However, all of that could be about to change.
Eagle-eyed beta testers of the new version of Google Messages were able to spot something very new within its code, which may indicate that Google has plans to catch up with the rest of the messaging world sooner rather than later.
Theverge.com mentioned that beta users discovered some code in the Google Messages beta that suggests Google has included some flags for this, suggesting that the message editing capability might actually exist. The beta releases, which were made available in the final week of November, included a few of these flags.
Which include;
- bugle.enable_edit_ui
- bugle.load_edit_history
- bugle.process_outgoing_edits
- bugle.process_incoming_edits
The first flag points towards activating the message-editing user interface. The second flag pertains to retrieving the message database’s edit history. The third flag is for processing the message when a user updates it, and the fourth flag is for processing the message for the user receiving it. However, attempting to enable these four flags reportedly doesn’t do anything yet as they are still under development.
When did Other Messaging Apps get the Message Edit Feature?
With iOS 16, Apple gave iMessage users the ability to edit messages that had been delivered, and WhatsApp followed suit early in 2023. You only have two minutes with iMessage and fifteen minutes with WhatsApp to edit texts that you’ve sent. You can delete sent messages with both services, but Google’s version doesn’t seem to support that feature.
Are there any Other Features Google is Working on for their Messaging App?
To make Google Message more appealing to RCS users, the Google Message team has been busy implementing a lot of new features and adding functionality that we typically see in Telegram and WhatsApp. Google has recently introduced several exciting new features for beta users, such as animated stickers, screen effects, noise suppression for audio messages, and photo emoji. Another feature consumers highly request is message editing, which is currently in high demand and being actively developed by Google.
Opinion
Google Messages has been lacking this feature for a while now, and the fact that they are still contemplating its release next year reflects the slow pace and lack of motivation for change within the company. Google’s delay in introducing such a basic editing feature in their app is very glaring, especially as other messaging apps have already made significant progress in this aspect. It’s never fun to be late to a party, but at this point, Google looks like they may have forgotten they were even invited.
Conclusion
It’s unclear how the feature would ultimately be implemented by the firm itself. For example, I’m still unsure if editing messages will have a time limit or if the receiver will be able to view the history of edits. However, a line of code called “original_rcs_messages_id” that beta users noticed shows the capability will function in addition to the RCS messaging system.
Sources: The Verge and Android Central