Following the lines of Whatsapp, LINE messaging app, which is hugely popular in Japan and Thailand, has added the ability for users to retract messages that they have sent in error. WhatsApp added the similar feature in October.
The ‘unsend’ feature, which has been added via an update out today (Dec 12), can be used across chat types — in one-to-one conversations, multi-user and groups chats. The only catch is, if you don’t delete your message within 24 hours, it stays in the chat. So it’s considerably more generous than the ‘unsend’ option in Whatsapp, which offers a mere seven minutes for users to delete or revoke messages sent by mistake.
However, the ‘unsend’ feature doesn’t prevent your friends from immediately spotting the message that you first sent them, and it will still tell the recipient that you have deleted something you have sent — so the awkward factor doesn’t entirely go away.
According to a statement from the LINE company, message types that can be unsent include contacts, images, Line Music links, location information, stickers, text and voice messages, videos, URLs, files and call history. This applies to both read and unread messages.
To use the feature, a Line user needs to press (or right click) on the specific message or content they want to recall and then select ‘unsend’ from the menu.
