How to Edit Sent iMessages to Fix Spelling Mistakes and Other Mistakes

Apple is finally allowing us to fix sent iMessages and I can honestly say that this is a game changer. Editing messages after they’ve been sent can prevent misunderstandings and allow you to fix annoying mistakes before the other person notices. This is one of the coolest new features in the Messages app, but there are a few important things you should know about how it works.

The new editing tool is a valuable feature for fixing auto-correction errors, fixing spelling mistakes that can sometimes change the context of text (such as entering the wrong time), and fixing other glitches that would otherwise require you to send a few more messages. explaining myself. You just have a limited amount of time to make changes, and that doesn’t stop anyone from seeing what you’ve written before.

Compatibility

To edit iMessages in the Messages app, your iPhone must be running iOS 16. It also works on iPadOS 16 for iPad and macOS 13 Ventura for Mac, both of which are still in beta. Unfortunately, you can’t edit iMessages from an Apple Watch, but you can still see your edit history in watchOS 9.

You can still edit messages sent to recipients using an older version of the software, but they will see each change as a new message, not a separate message with a history that they can expand on. We’ll talk more about this below.

Edit iMessages on iPhone

You have 15 minutes to edit your sent iMessage if you want to add, remove, or change anything. During these 15 minutes, you can edit the message up to five times. When you correct the maximum number of edits in a particular post or the time limit expires, the Edit button disappears.

To edit a sent iMessage on iOS 16, press and hold the message to open the quick actions menu, then tap Edit. You can then enter your changes and click the checkmark button to confirm.

Tap and hold on a message to find “Edit”(left), then tap the checkmark when you’re done editing (right).

What your recipients see

An edited message is marked “Edited”for all participants in the conversation. Thus, both the sender and the recipient can touch it to open the change history. Clicking “Hide Changes”collapses the story back into a single post.

Recipients with older operating systems will not see edits in the same way. Instead, they will receive new text for each edit, showing what has been changed. At this point, you can’t tell if the recipient’s device supports iMessage editing, so you can never be sure how they see things.

You can display changes in iOS 16 (left), but in iOS 15 each change is shown as a new message (right).

Editing iMessages on macOS

You can also edit iMessages on Mac starting with macOS 13 Ventura (still in beta). Right-click (or Control-click) the desired message to open the menu, then click Edit to change the text. You have 15 minutes to make up to five edits before the Edit button disappears. Recipients with macOS 12 Monterey and older will see each change as separate text showing what changes were made.

View the context menu of the message to find “Edit”in macOS Ventura.

Things to Remember

To edit an iMessage sent from your Apple Watch, you need to pull out your iPhone, iPad, or Mac within 15 minutes of sending it, as watchOS 9 doesn’t have an iMessage editor. However, edited posts will have Edited and Hide Changes buttons to show or collapse the change history.

Also, don’t forget that the editing feature only works with iMessage chats and cannot be applied to SMS or MMS texts. Once you send plain text or media-based text, you won’t be able to edit its content.

Apple also introduced another feature in iOS 16 that allows you to return a recently sent iMessage within two minutes of sending it. This way you can start all over again without being limited by the number of edits.