Last year, it was revealed that Mark Zuckerberg had an option to “unsend” messages that were sent on Facebook Messenger. Once that info came out, everyone who uses Messenger wanted in on the functionality too—and now Facebook is delivering.
So, to be clear, the current “delete” option on Facebook Messenger only removes the message for you—the recipient can still see it. That also means it’s still on Facebook’s Messenger servers. The Unsend feature, by contrast, will allow users to completely remove the message as if it never happened.
Of course, there’s a catch: it’s limited to a small, 10-minute window.
That means you won’t be able to run back through old messages and
unsend anything you want, which is both a bummer and a logical move.
Still, if you say something and immediately regret it, you’ll be able to
unsend it starting today. Here’s how.
It’s a pretty straightforward option: just long-press on the message.
You’ll get the normal reaction emoji just above message, as well as some
options down below: Copy, Remove, and Forward. This replaces the Copy,
Forward, Delete options that have historically been present here.
Tapping the Remove option will then offer two options: “Remove for
Everyone” and “Remove for You.” Pretty self-explanatory here, but if you
tap the “Remove for Everyone” option it will unsend the message. The
latter option will function in the same way the current Delete option
works.
While it hasn’t been confirmed yet, this should work
the same way in Messenger on the web: hover over a message, click the
ellipsis menu button, then choose the Remove option. We’ll confirm this
once the feature is available for us to use.
