Summary
- Google Messages rolling out a ‘Delete for everyone’ option for select users on the beta channel.
- Users will have a 15-minute window to unsend messages.
- The feature only seems to work in large group conversations for now.
WhatsApp, Telegram, and iMessage all let you unsend those texts you wish you’d never sent in the first place. Google Messages was the only outlier, though Google was spotted testing a “Delete for everyone” option in late March. The company is now seemingly rolling out this option for select users running the latest beta of its messaging app.
Reddit user u/seeareeff reports seeing the “Delete for everyone” option in at least one group conversation in Google Messages with 12 people. The pop-up does not appear in smaller groups he is a part of or in one-to-one conversations. As the screenshot below shows, users will still have the option to delete a message just for themselves if they prefer.
Despite running the latest Google Messages beta build on my Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Galaxy S23 Ultra, the “Delete for everyone” option is not showing up for me. This indicates the company is only rolling out the feature to a limited set of users on the Google Messages beta channel. And while there’s no option to delete messages in a one-to-one conversation, that will hopefully change before the feature rolls out publicly.
Based on a previous report, users will get a 15-minute window to unsend their sent texts. RCS Universal Profile 2.7 introduced message deletion support, which Google is likely leveraging to enable the feature.
Note that when a message is deleted, Google Messages will display a “Message deleted” placeholder. This approach mirrors WhatsApp and differs from Telegram, where there’s no indication if someone has deleted a message in a chat.
Google may take its time to roll out text deletion in Google Messages
Google first rolled out the ability to edit sent RCS messages within 15 minutes in May 2024, followed by a wider release a few months later, in September 2024. But in some cases, a delete option is more useful and would be a handy addition to the messaging app.
As with every new feature that Google tests in Google Messages, the ability to delete sent texts can take a few months to hit the stable channel.
In recent weeks, Google Messages has gained several notable features, including a new trick to silence RCS spam and single-emoji full-screen effects. Google is also in the middle of rolling out custom icons for group chats to its messaging app.
