Apple iPhone users may soon be able to edit sent messages

Most messaging apps, including Apple's iMessages, have a critical limitation -- they don't allow users to edit a message once it has been sent. But that may change soon.

Apple has filed a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office that describes how users will be able to edit sent messages in a messaging app. Apple starts by talking about the limitations in the current generation of messaging apps. "But current messaging applications have numerous drawbacks and limitations," says the patent. "For example, they are limited in their ability to easily: acknowledge messages; edit previously sent messages; express what a user is trying to communicate; display private messages; synchronize viewing of content between users; incorporate handwritten inputs…," Apple wrote in the patent titled 'Devices, Methods, and Graphical User Interfaces for Messaging' as seen by Apple Insider.

"They are limited in how users can] quickly locate content in a message transcript; integrate a camera; integrate search and sharing; integrate interactive applications; integrate stickers; make payments; interact with avatars; make suggestions; navigate among interactive applications; manage interactive applications; translate foreign language text; combine messages into a group; and flag messages," the company added in its patent application explaining the limitations of the current messaging apps.

It then goes on to propose a solution to one of the most common limitations of the messaging apps: editing sent messages. While the company does not dwell into the technical details of the technology that would make such a feat possible, it does describe how the feature would work on the user end.e user could do such an edit.

"The first message can be edited, despite the fact that it has already been sent...To initiate the editing of the first message, the user selects the first message with a predefined touch input (e.g., a tap gesture, long press gesture, light press gesture, or deep press gesture) on the first message or the message region for the first message," the company wrote in the patent as per the publication.

The app would then display a menu or a 'message editing interface' which would also contain a keyboard for editing a message. The interface would display a revised version of the message once it detects an input, which would then be sent to the recipient.

What's more? The patent not only talks about the technology that would allow users edit sent messages but it also shows how users will be able to access third-party apps and payment options within the company's messaging app.

That said, these features are still a part company's patent and it will be sometime before users can get their hands on them.