How to Stop Someone From Editing IMessages They Send You
Apple iOS 16 introduces some amazing new messaging features : with the new update, you can recover deleted messages for up to 30 days, mark messages as unread to come back to them later, and you have more SharePlay options than ever before . However, two features of messages that have made headlines are the ability to edit and delete messages after they’ve been sent. These are handy options for those of us who hit “send” too quickly, but for some, they can also be a major problem. You can prevent others from editing your posts for you, even if the decision is not particularly pleasant.
Let’s take a look at how these features work: When you send a message to an iPhone running iOS 16, a 15-minute timer is activated. In this window, you have the option to either edit this message or cancel it completely. After those 15 minutes, the text is blocked, like all iMessages in iOS 15 and earlier. These two features have obvious advantages. If you re-read your sent message and realize that you made an annoying typo, you can quickly correct it so that the recipient understands what you really meant. If you send a message to the wrong person (sometimes with dire consequences), you can instantly retract it.
Apple is far from the first messaging provider to offer these features. Facebook Messenger lets you unsend messages at any time, and apps like Telegram and Slack also let you edit messages. However, since iMessage is a messaging service for iPhone users in the US, it is by far the largest platform to offer such features.
While most of us will use these features innocently and make our conversations clearer, people can abuse these options, especially when it comes to using text messages as evidence. As Nielsen Law’s Jennifer Nielsen highlights in this tweet , the ability to edit or delete messages poses a problem for those in family court who rely on recorded text messages as evidence in their case. Of course, you can imagine that the same applies every time messages are used as evidence, regardless of the case: if the other side knows that you are going to use their messages against them, they can take advantage of the fact that everyone can speak, what they want. want you with 15 minutes to clean up the mess.
Now , any iMessage edited in iOS 16 is tagged accordingly, so you’ll never confuse the edited message with the original intent. However, there is no revision history : if you don’t have a screenshot of the message as it was originally, you won’t be able to verify what the sender actually told you. You can report the message exactly as it was sent to you, but the sender may claim to have just corrected a typo. Sure, you can burn your battery by recording your iPhone’s screen all day, but that’s certainly not ideal, just because Apple introduced a new feature.
Of course, you can only edit and undo messages in iOS 16, which is not yet available to the general public. As of this writing, iOS 16 is only available to those using the iOS developer beta , but it won’t be difficult for non-developers to install the software on their iPhones. The public beta will be open to all iOS testers in July, and most iPhones will have access to messaging features in the fall.
Here’s the bad news: there’s no way to disable these features. If someone is using iOS 16 on their iPhone, they can edit and cancel any iMessage, even if you are not running iOS 16 on your end. However, the key word here is iMessage : if you send someone a text message – for example in SMS, green text messages – those messages are blocked and you can’t manipulate or undo them.
If you’re worried about other people editing their messages for you, the only thing you can do is turn off iMessage to turn all conversations into SMS. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this for every contact: you either have iMessage enabled or you don’t. It will be like having an Android to your friends by turning all group chats into green horror texts. But if you need to make sure that no one changes their texts for you, this is the only way to do it. Luckily, iOS 16 quietly fixes the worst part of group SMS chats on iPhone so you won’t annoy your friends as much.
To disable iMessage on your iPhone, open Settings, scroll down and tap Messages. Now, tap the switch next to iMessage to disable the feature on your end. All of your future posts can be green, but at least they can’t be edited or deleted.