Technology and Science
| On 12 months ago

Typo? Don’t stress – You can now edit sent WhatsApp messages

By Cheryl Kahla

Ever had one of those moments when your thumbs work faster than your brain and you fall victim to dreadful typos after hastily sending a WhatsApp message?

Well, then we have good news for you. WhatsApp is now letting users edit sent messages, so say goodbye to message remorse for good.

Here’s what you need to know.

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New WhatsApp feature

This nifty feature is set to bring you more control over your conversations, allowing you to correct that annoying typo or add extra context to a previously sent message.

And all you have to do is simply long-press the sent message and select ‘Edit’ from the drop-down menu.

The recipient will see an ‘edited’ label next to the message, but WhatsApp doesn’t store the edit history, so your secret is still safe.

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Global rollout underway

The new feature is currently rolling out to users worldwide and should be available to all users within the coming weeks.

And don’t worry about the security of your messages either.

All your edits will be protected by the same end-to-end encryption that shields all your personal messages, media and calls.

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There’s a catch, though, you can only make changes up to fifteen minutes after hitting send.

Speaking of end-to-end encryption…

Password reminder for backups

In other WhatsApp-related news, the chat service app is also introducing a password reminder feature for end-to-end encrypted backups.

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With this feature, it will be easier than ever to keep your data secure.

You’ll occasionally be prompted to enter the password you chose to encrypt your backups on Google Drive and iCloud.

This serves as a gentle nudge to ensure your password is correct and that you can still remember it.

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READ: Beware, South Africa: WhatsApp scams you need to avoid

What if you forget the password?

We all forget our passwords at some stage, though, right? But no need to stress.

You can easily disable end-to-end encrypted backups and then reactivate it again with a new password.

This feature is also gradually rolling out to users who have the latest versions of WhatsApp for iOS and Android.

READ: Charged up: 5 easy tricks to extend your phone’s battery life

Read more on these topics: appsMobileWhatsApp