New Google Messages Feature - Edit Sent Text Msg

 

A useful new feature in Google Messages is now available to some beta testers of the app.

According to a tip posted by AssembleDebug, the appearance of the Edit button seems to be scattered throughout the beta, and Kira says that the button appears on "old devices" but not on current devices. states that it is not displayed.

When you press and hold a message, a pencil icon appears next to the Copy button at the top of the conversation. Tap this to redisplay your previous message in the writing area at the bottom of the message. A banner that says "Edit Message" will appear above it.

As a result of testing, Google has reduced processing time to 15 minutes and unedited (original) messages now appear in Message Details. More importantly, the user said that the beta editing feature requires him to work with two people.

In our internal testing, we found that the editing feature works even if the other party does not have the editing feature. However, it wasn't perfect. I found that when I edited a message, the old message disappeared and a new message with my corrections was immediately added to the conversation. In another test between the Pixel 8a and Galaxy S24 Plus (both have this feature), we found that editing a message simply replaces old text with new text in the same bubble.

When you tap the three-dot menu and select Show Details, editors will see the original message next to the new selection. In beta, additional information is now displayed on the details page if the counterparty does not have access to the Edit button.

AssembleDebug noted that the editing feature was discovered in February, and it was mentioned that it would take longer to return and fix errors. Google seems to have cut corners in the current beta, reducing the time limit from 30 minutes to 15 minutes.