ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Google Messages now lets you delete a sent text message.
- A deleted message disappears for the other person immediately.
- The feature is available now for almost all Android users.
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Android users finally have an undo option.
A long-awaited feature that lets you delete a sent text message is widely rolling out to most Android devices — provided you use Google Messages as your texting platform.
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The option was first spotted by Android Authority, which also saw signs of the feature as early as February. Google has been slowly rolling out the ability to delete a message for some time, but it’s now showing up for most users. The ability to delete a message from your screen has existed for a while, but now you can delete it for everyone involved.
How to delete a text message in Google Messages
You only have the option to delete a text for everyone if both parties are using RCS messaging. To delete a sent message, long press on it until you see options at the top. Beside the edit button (which rolled out last May), you’ll see the new delete option — a trash can.
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When you tap the trash can icon, you’ll see an option to delete for everyone or just for you. If you choose everyone, Google warns, other people may still see the message if they’re on older versions of the app that don’t support the delete feature. While you only have the option to edit a text for 15 minutes after it’s sent, the ability to delete seems permanent (it was still there an hour after I checked while writing this).
When I checked, the feature was available on my Pixel 9 Pro and my wife’s Pixel 9a. I tried sending a text and then deleting it, and it disappeared from my wife’s phone almost instantly. Like Facebook Messenger, there is a “message deleted” notification, but no indication of what it said.
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This ability won’t let you take back a late-night text you regret the next morning, but it will let you undo something said in the heat of the moment or an accidental send. It might seem like a small tweak, but it’s good to see Google catch up with the competition. Both iMessage and WhatsApp have had delete options for years now, and if Messages wants to stay relevant, it has to stay modern.