WhatsApp has begun testing the ability to edit messages on the beta version of the app for Android and iOS. The Meta-owned messaging service is now testing message editing on its mobile apps as well as the Web interface — testing for the latter began last week. Users who have signed up to receive updates via the beta channel on iOS and Android can make changes to text messages within a specific time frame, and the feature is expected to roll out to all WhatsApp users in the coming weeks along with other beta features including the ability to silence unknown callers.
According to WABetaInfo, a popular feature tracker, the messaging service has enabled the message editing feature on WhatsApp Beta for Android version 2.23.10.13 and WhatsApp Beta for iOS version 23.10.0.70. Gadgets 360 was able to confirm the presence of the feature on WhatsApp for Android.
Users who have installed or updated to these builds via the beta testing channels on Google Play and Apple’s TestFlight should have a new Edit message option visible via the three-dot menu (Android) and the long-press menu (iOS). This is similar to the recent WhatsApp Web beta update that introduced the ability to modify messages.
WhatsApp has limited the ability to edit messages on all three platforms — iOS, Android, and Web — to 15 minutes. Apple also applies the same time limit on texts sent via the Messages app. However, while you can only edit an iMessage text up to five times, WhatsApp does not appear to have any limit on the number of times a message can be modified, within the time limit.
While the ability to edit text messages on WhatsApp is available for beta testing on Android, iOS, and Web, there’s no word from the company on when it plans to bring the feature to all users on the stable release channel. It could roll out to users in the coming weeks, alongside other features that are in testing, including the ability to silence unknown callers, which is presumably a feature designed to combat the rise of spam and scam calls on the messaging service.
