For an absolute age we’ve wanted a feature to let us edit WhatsApp messages, and it would seem that the powers that be have finally listened – a new user beta for its web version looks like it’s added the feature.
For now, as spotted by WABetaInfo, this is a pretty limited system that won’t let you edit messages on your phone or anything, but it could be a signal that the feature will roll out more widely in time.
How to edit a message in WhatsApp
As we mentioned above, to edit a message in WhatsApp after you’ve sent it there are quite a few prerequisites.
Firstly, you can only do it on WhatsApp’s web client at present, and you can also only access the feature if you’re using the beta version of the app.
That’s something that WhatsApp occasionally opens up access to, or allows invites for, so there’s no easy way to join it, and this further limits the feature for now.
If the feature does get enabled on your account, the steps to use it are very simple, though – as you can see below.
- Send a message to a contact or group chat
- Within 15 minutes of first sending it, right-click on the message in the thread
- Click on Edit message
- Edit the message contents and confirm
This will update the message in your thread, but will also mark it as having been edited, so that you can’t just change messages without people knowing that a change took place.
You can edit a message as many times as you like in that 15-minute window, but once that time is up you’ll no longer be able to do anything more.
Can I edit a message in WhatsApp on my phone?
For now, there’s no way to edit a message you’ve sent in WhatsApp on your phone, but you can still delete sent messages if you make a calamitous error.
However, WABetaInfo has reported that the editing feature is going to come to mobile versions of WhatsApp in the future, so we might hopefully be able to edit message on the go soon.
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