To unsend a text message on an iPhone, you need to be using iOS 16 or later, and the message must be an iMessage (blue bubble), not a regular SMS (green bubble). Here are the steps:
- Open the Messages app and go to the conversation with the message you want to unsend.
- Touch and hold the message bubble you want to unsend.
- Tap Undo Send from the menu that appears.
- The message will be removed from both your device and the recipient’s device, and a notification saying "You unsent a message" will appear in the conversation.
Important details:
- You can only unsend a message within 2 minutes of sending it.
- Both you and the recipient must be using iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, macOS Ventura, or later for the unsend to work properly. If the recipient has an older OS, they might still see the original message.
- This feature works only for iMessages, not SMS or MMS texts
If you want to edit a sent message instead, you can do so up to 15 minutes after sending, with up to five edits allowed
. This feature gives you a brief window to retract or correct messages sent by mistake, improving control over your conversations on iPhone.
