How to unsend messages on iPhone

By John-Anthony Disotto
last updated

Unsend messages on iPhone takes the regrets away!

iPhone 14 with Messages app on home screen
(Image credit: iMore)
Jump to:

Have you ever sent a message to someone by mistake? Have you ever wanted to delete a regretful mistake? iOS 16 brought some major new additions to the Messages app and allows users to unsend messages on iPhone so you can erase the pain away. 

Here's how to unsend messages on your iPhone running iOS 16. 

How to unsend messages on iPhone

This feature will only work with other Apple users, so you're out of luck if you're hoping to unsend an SMS to an Android user, although WhatsApp does the trick!

How to unsend messages on iPhone

(Image: © iMore)

  1. Tap and hold on a message you sent within the last 2 minutes

  2. Tap Undo Send

  3. Watch as your message bubble disappears! Note: The recipient will see that a message has been unsent

When you unsend messages on iPhone, the Messages app will show "unsent a message" in the chat, so be aware of this to avoid awkward confrontations. iOS 16 gives you a sense of freedom by ensuring that any mistake can easily be fixed by deleting a message or editing one. Once two minutes have passed, your message is stuck in the chat forever, and there will be nowhere to hide!

Unsend messages on iPhone, a magical feature.

The ability to unsend messages on iPhone is something that we've wanted for so long, and now that it's here, honestly, I barely even use it. The online culture of once something is out there, it's out there has made me and many others constantly hyper-aware of making sure our messages mean exactly what we want them to mean. Now I guess there's a little leeway to make life easier.

iOS 16 brings some significant changes to the Messages app to make the best iPhones even better. The iPhone's Messages app is becoming increasingly feature-rich and user-friendly by adding the ability to unsend messages on iPhone and edit messages too. The future is bright for iPhone Messages; hopefully, iOS 17 will give us, even more to get excited about when it launches later this year. 

John-Anthony Disotto
John-Anthony Disotto
How To Editor

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself.

Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings.

John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019. 

John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit.