Google Messages now lets you delete texts after you’ve sent them

Who doesn’t love a good do-over? Everybody makes mistakes, and we don’t have nearly enough opportunities to go back and try setting things right. That’s exactly why we were so hyped earlier this year to catch wind of Google Messages building support for not just deleting texts off your own screen, but using the power of RCS to remotely delete them from everyone else’s screens, too. And now that support looks like it’s finally widely available.

Back in February, we identified text strings developers had recently added to Messages that hinted at the forthcoming support. In addition to “Delete for me,” the app was readying a “Delete for everyone” option. While how well that works would depend on everyone you were communicating with also running software supporting the feature, it sounded like a great addition, especially if you’re a bit of a careless texter.

By May, we had finally started to see confirmation that the ability was going live, with beta testers beginning to get access. But even then, we had lingering questions about how all this would work — like if the option would be exclusive to group chats, or if it might also be available for one-on-one conversations.

This week, we’re seeing the feature generally available across all the devices and accounts we’ve checked. When you’re communicating with someone in Messages over RCS, you’ll now be able to choose between “Delete for me” and “Delete for everyone” after highlighting one of your messages and tapping the trash can icon.

It’s still probably a good idea to think twice before sending a questionable text; this tool isn’t going to do anything to stop people from reading your message (and judging you for it) before you get a chance to delete it, nor will it impede their ability to snap a quick screenshot. But even those limitations aside, this is one change that we expect a whole lot of Messages users are going to be very, very happy about.