It started when Facebook secretly retracted messages from CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this 2018.
In an update, Facebook Messenger starts allowing users to do things similar, with an unsend feature. This will essentially remove their sent messages from the recipient's inbox. However, this feature only works when the message they wish to remove has only been delivered for the first 10 minutes.
The sender won't also be able to edit the history.
Previously known as 'Remove for Everyone' feature, the button leaves an indication that a message was retracted. This was meant to make conversation more transparent, and preventing bullies to cover their tracks. Facebook also said to store unsent messages for a short period of time, allowing them to review the messages when necessary for any policy violation.
Initially, the Remove message feature is introduced for users in Poland, Bolivia, Colombia and Lithuania, on both Messenger for iOS and Android. From there, Facebook has plans to roll the feature out to all users globally.
Facebook's head of Messenger Stan Chudnovsky explained that:
Instagram has this feature, and so does WhatsApp. So why the long wait for Messenger?
According to Chudnovsky, the reason why it took so long is because on the server side, it's more difficult. For Messenger, all messages are stored on the server.
"All the messages are stored on the server, and that goes into the core transportation layer of our how our messaging system was built,” explained Chudnovsky. "It was hard to do given how we were architected, but we were always worried about the integrity concerns it would open up."
To use this unsend feature, users just need to tap and hold on a message they've sent that they wish to be removed, and select the 'Remove' option. Users will see the option to 'Remove for Everyone' which retracts the message from all recipients, and the 'Remove for You' which replaces the old delete option and leaves the message in the recipient’s inbox.
Users will then see a warning that says "You’ll permanently remove this message for all chat members. They can see that you removed a message and still report it."
Confirming this will show a text that says "You [or the sender’s name] removed a message", and a 'tombstone' will appear in the thread where the message was.
If users want to report a removed message for abuse or other issues, they can tap on the person's name, and scroll down to 'Something’s Wrong' to select the proper category.
As for the 10-minute limit, Chudnovsky said that “We looked at how the existing delete functionality works. It turns out that when people are deleting messages because it’s a mistake or they sent something they didn’t want to send, it’s under a minute. We decided to extend it to 10, but decided we didn’t need to do more."
Beyond this feature, Facebook is also building more unsend functionality, which takes cue from the encrypted messaging app Signal, which has a customizable per thread expiration date feature.