Apple introducing edit feature on iMessage as part of iOS 16 update

Apple is changing how iPhone users send text messages, introducing an upcoming feature that will allow people to edit a text after it is sent through iMessage.

Starting in the fall, those with the latest update of iOS 16 will allow iPhone users to edit, or even recall, iMessages sent in error.

“Users can edit or recall recently sent messages, recover recently deleted messages, and mark conversations as unread so they can come back to them later,” an Apple spokesperson said in a news release.

The iPhone maker is also redesigning the lock screen in the most substantial visual redesign iOS 16 has received since the introduction of the iPhone X.

Apple says the new features, including the iMessage “undo send” option, will be available to older iPhones but are intended to work with the forthcoming iPhone 14.

Craig Federighi, Apple’s head of software engineering, called the latest redesign “an incredible set of new personalization features that will make your experience feel fresh and incredibly you.”

“iOS 16 is a big release with updates that will change how you experience iPhone,” said Federighi.

Apple kicked off its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC22) on Monday.

Here are some of Apple’s new features introduced through the forthcoming iOS 16 updates.

• Notifications have been redesigned to roll up from the bottom, ensuring users view their personalized Lock Screen.
• Dictation has been redesigned to make it easier to switch between dictating text and editing it with a keyboard.
• Live text will now work with video, letting users still copy and paste text from a paused video.
• Apple Maps lets users add multiple stops to a route and sync them between iOS and Macs.
• “Buy now, pay later,” a function designed to offer users an interest-free, four-month loan on any payments made using the company’s payment infrastructure.
• Family Sharing offers an easier way to set up an account for a child with the proper parental controls.
• Safari adds shared Tab Groups to share a collection of websites with friends and family, making it seamless to add tabs and see what others view.
• The Fitness app is available to all iPhone users to help track and meet fitness goals, even if they don’t have an Apple Watch.

“We have reimagined how the Lock Screen looks and works with exciting new features that make it more personal and helpful, introduced iCloud Shared Photo Library for families, streamlined communication through new capabilities in Messages and Mail, and harnessed enhanced intelligence with updates to Live Text and Visual Look Up,” Federighi added.

New iOS 16 Lock Screen.. it feels like how you customize the complications on the Apple Watch. Notifications roll in from the bottom. #WWDC22 pic.twitter.com/2RXSCKch7k

— iJustine (@ijustine) June 6, 2022

Apple products, including the newly designed iPhone. Photo: Unsplash.

Apple also says it’s partnering with Canada’s Shopify to allow users to track the progress of their orders in Apple Wallet.

Twitter has long teased an edit button on its social media platform, but the feature has yet to be introduced.

Apple somehow beats Twitter to the edit button.

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) June 6, 2022

Twitter announced in April that it was working on an edit feature for tweets.

That prompted Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO and power Twitter user now embroiled in a public battle to purchase the social media giant, to launch a Twitter poll asking users if they wanted an edit button.

More than 4 million people voted.

Many Twitter users- Kim Kardashian, Ice T, Katy Perry and McDonald’s corporate account- have long begged for an edit button.

The company recently teased users with an April Fool’s Day tweet saying, “we are working on an edit button.” Its Twitter account said Tuesday that the April 1 tweet wasn’t a joke, and it has been working on it since last year — and that it didn’t get the idea from Musk’s poll.