Write-Delete-Rewrite, But Quickly: Facebook Messenger Introduces Unsend Message Feature With A Time-Limit Of Ten Minutes

Facebook has introduced a new ‘Unsend Message’ feature in Messenger which can be used to delete the already sent messages, as reported by Gadgets 360.

Formally depicted as 'Remove for Everyone', the feature will enable users to delete any kind of message within 10 minutes of sending it. This includes text, group chats, photos and videos.

Currently available to all its users in Poland, Bolivia, Colombia, and Lithuania for both Android and iOS, the feature will soon to be extended to other parts of the world,

After Facebook faced severe criticism from users for deleting the CEO Mark Zuckerberg's messages from several recipients' inboxes without prior intimation, the social media giant had announced in April this year that it will be rolling out an 'Unsend Message' feature in the future,

Facebook's head of Messenger, Stan Chudnovsky said, "We looked at how the existing delete functionality works. It turns out that when people were deleting messages because it is a mistake or they sent something they did not want to send, it's under one minute. We decided to extend it to 10, but decided we didn't need to do more"

He also said that the feature rolled out to the common public isn't the same as it is for the executives of the company. Surprisingly, the tombstone message didn't show up for users when Zuckerberg's messages were deleted from several accounts.

TechCrunch reports that Facebook's PR manager Kat Chui said that the social giant will keep a private copy of the message for a short while after it's deleted to make sure it can review if it's reported for harassment. Users can report a removed message by tapping on the person's name > tapping on Somethings Wrong > and selecting the proper category for report abuse.