KEY POINTS:-

• Within 15 minutes of sending a message, WhatsApp users will now be able to amend it.
• Within the next several weeks, the new functionality is anticipated to be made available to WhatsApp’s approximately 2 billion users.
• The move by the firm controlled by Meta imitates features offered by rivals like Signal and Telegram.

Users of WhatsApp will soon be able to modify messages, a functionality already present in Telegram and Signal as well as other messaging services.

The Meta-owned app said that messages could be modified for up to 15 minutes after being delivered in a Monday update.

Within the next several weeks, the new functionality is anticipated to be made available to WhatsApp’s approximately 2 billion users.

The company said in a blog post on Monday that it was “excited to bring you more control over your chats,” adding that “from fixing a simple misspelling to adding extra context to a message.”

You only need to long-press on a message that has already been delivered and select “Edit” from the menu for up to fifteen minutes after, it continued.

Changed messages will display as “edited,” alerting recipients to the change. However, they won’t be informed of the changes made to the message.

Several competing messaging services, including Telegram and Signal, already include message editing capabilities. In the meanwhile, Twitter gives users of its Twitter Blue service a 30-minute message editing window.

In recent years, Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, has been renowned for its efforts to copy rival apps—some of which have been more successful than others.

Following an unsuccessful attempt to acquire the fleeting photo app Snapchat, the business launched Instagram Stories in 2013 to considerable success. Later attempts to imitate the neighbourhood communication app Nextdoor and the celebrity video app Cameo, however, were both abandoned by the company.

According to recent reports, the corporation is getting ready to release a Twitter clone as early as June with an emphasis on “creators and public figures.”