If you’ve ever sent a message that you’ve immediately wished you hadn’t (hand ups everyone), Facebook Messenger has come to your rescue.
From this week, the popular app will allow users to unsend messages from a conversation or group chat – as long as it’s within 10 minutes of hitting send.
Previously users could only delete messages from their chat log – not the other person’s.
Now you can simply tap on the message, hit “remove for everyone” and save yourself some super-awkward conversations with family and friends.
Be warned: leave that incriminating message longer than 10 minutes and you won’t be able to erase it – but you’ll at least be able to take it down from your own chat so hopefully all will be forgotten by the time Christmas dinner rolls around.
All your mates will also see a text saying that a message has been removed – so they’ll know you sent something risqué, though you can just say it was a slip of the tongue (or finger).
Facebook had announced the new feature last year after it was caught deleting some of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s messages from recipients’ inboxes – admitting it had built the secret feature to “protect our executives’ communications”.
This new function is obviously not quite as all-powerful as Mr Zuckerberg’s – but still, it’s great news for your future drunken texts.
