How Apple Just Made Controversial iMessage Editing Tool Less Problematic in iOS 16

Apple’s controversial iMessage editing feature in iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS 13 Ventura is now less likely to be exploited by attackers.

The company added restrictions and protections in response to criticism that the tool could be misused by attackers to harass, gaslight, or otherwise harass iMessage recipients. However, even with the new limitations, the iMessage editor remains a valuable tool for regular users who routinely make mistakes and autocorrect doesn’t work.

iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS 13 Ventura Developer Beta 4, released on July 27, changes the in-messages editing tool so you can make just five edits in 15 minutes. After you edit a post five times, the Edit button will disappear from the Quick Actions menu.

In addition, both senders and recipients can see all versions of the edited message, not just the latest one, by clicking the “Edited”alert below the message. This way, you no longer need to turn off iMessage or use an additional Apple device with outdated software to view your change history.

When it comes to returning iMessage, you now only have two minutes instead of 15 minutes to do so. After two minutes, the Cancel Send button will disappear from Quick Actions.

The changes to iMessage can be seen as a victory for victim advocates, who have asked Apple to rethink how the edit and unsend features work. This is not a perfect solution, but it will most likely prevent the system from being overloaded with gaslighting, harassment, harmful activities, and other negative ways.