How To Unsend Messages On Facebook Messenger

Every Facebook user has probably had to go through the horror of unintentionally sending a message to a Messenger contact that was meant for somebody else, making it a good thing that the company allows the option to take back errant chats and eliminate them from the view of one or all parties involved in a conversation. Rather than have to completely disable Facebook Messenger out of embarrassment, users can save face online, with a few acceptable caveats.

The ‘Unsend’ option is available to use through Facebook’s Messenger tab within the main platform via the desktop app. It can also be accessed through messenger.com as well as Messenger’s mobile apps on iOS and Android. When a message in a Facebook chat thread is unsent, a notification declaring that a person unsent a message will replace the deleted chat bubble. People included in the conversation will still see these now-absent messages recorded in the chat history, but will be unable to read the original message unless they happened to read it before the deletion. This is different from Facebook Messenger’s vanish mode, which allows users to communicate without messages being archived in the chat history while the feature is active.

According to TechCrunch, the ability to unsend messages has been available since 2018, but back then users only had ten minutes after a message gets delivered to take it back; after that, it became permanently recorded. Now, users can either permanently ‘Unsend for Everyone’ and remove messages from everyone’s view, or just hide messages they no longer want to see themselves by selecting ‘Unsend for You.’ To do this on a desktop web browser, go to facebook.com, click on the Messenger icon on the top-right corner of the page, and select a conversation. Alternatively,  go directly to messenger.com and open a conversation thread. Click the three-dot icon next to the message bubble to delete and select ‘Unsend.’ Choose between ‘Unsend for everyone’ or ‘Unsend for you.’ Once a choice has been made, click on ‘Unsend.’

Unsend A Message Or Merely Remove It From View

Users can also fire up the Messenger app on their mobile phones and open a chat thread they want to delete messages from. Find the text bubble to remove, long-press on it until options pop up. Android users can tap ‘Unsend’ and choose between ‘Unsend for everyone’ or ‘Unsend for you.’ iPhone owners need to hit ‘More’ before choosing ‘Unsend,’ then ‘Unsend for everyone’ or ‘Unsend for you.’

For some Facebook users, ignorance can be absolute bliss. Rather than have to block someone on Messenger, people can utilize the ‘Unsend for you’ option and forget they ever sent a message to someone without necessarily taking the statement back and the other Facebook user’s ability to still see the message. Do note that even though Facebook Messenger is essentially secure, deleted chats can still be included in reports when a user or someone in the chat downloads a copy of their Facebook data. It’ll say messages were unsent in the chat though, and not what the messages originally said. Additionally, it’s also possible that other Facebook users may have already seen or forwarded a message before it got deleted.

Source: Facebook, TechCrunch

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