Google Messages Will Soon Let You Delete Messages for Everyone
Not long ago, sending a message was final. It didn’t matter if you had an unfortunate typo or sent a message to the wrong person: once you hit send, you were locked, and whoever the message was sent to could have it for as long as they wanted.
However, today we have technology to save ourselves from this difficulty. Many chat apps now have the ability to retrieve a message after it has been sent, either by editing the message to correct an error or by deleting the message from everyone in the chat. This doesn’t guarantee that people who receive the message won’t see it, but it does remove the message from view. If they haven’t caught it, they’ll never understand.
Today, many chat apps have this delete option, from WhatsApp to iMessage . But one notable exception was Google’s posts. If you sent a message that you didn’t intend to send, you can edit it for 15 minutes, but you won’t be able to undo it. Fortunately, the situation is beginning to change. 9to5Google first noticed the ability to delete messages for everyone back in February . Now it seems to be happening slowly but surely.
More specifically, RCS, the messaging protocol now used by default in Google Messages, has had this option since the “Universal Profile 2.7” update last July, which allows users to “edit, recall, and delete [messages] they have previously sent for themselves and the message recipient.”
How the Delete for Everyone feature works in Google Messages
When this feature arrives in your Google Messages app, you’ll have two options for deleting a message. You’ll have a “Delete for Me” option, which behaves the same way it always does when deleting a message: it will be deleted on your end, but not for anyone else. However, there is now also a “Delete for Everyone” feature that deletes the message for all users using a compatible version of Google Messages.
This is the key point. While the message will be removed for users who have an updated, compatible version of Google Messages installed, it will not be removed from older versions of the app. This is the Achilles’ heel of this feature, and it applies to most chat apps that offer it: you’ll never know if a message has been deleted unless you’re sure all parties involved are using the latest version of Google Messages.
According to 9to5Google, the feature is currently being rolled out quite slowly. They highlight one user using the beta version of Google Messages, which has a 12-member group chat feature, but no solo chats. 9to5Google does not have this option.
To try out this feature as soon as possible, you can sign up for the Google Messages beta. If you’re willing to risk getting a more unstable version of the messaging app, go to the Google Messages Play Store page , select BECOME A TESTER , and then follow the onscreen instructions to sign up.