APPLE last week announced a major change to Messages that’s got people on social media talking.
Netizens are warning of the various ways that the upcoming ability to edit your texts could be abused.
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The feature will be added to the Messages app – formerly known as iMessage – later this year.
It’s part of a massive overhaul of the iPhone’s iOS operating system.
Following the update, users will be able to tap and hold a text message that they have sent to change it.
Currently, it is not possible to edit messages that have already been sent.
Apple says that the feature will prove useful for anyone who wants to correct an error in one of their texts.
However, a number of videos on TikTok have highlighted the myriad ways that the technology could be misused.
In one video, a TikTok creator with early access to the software showed how it could be used to tarnish someone’s relationship.
He proposed a tongue-in-cheek scenario in which he asks a girl an innocuous question, to which she responds “yes”.
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The TikToker then changes his original question to something far more explicit and screenshots the conversation.
It’s implied that the screengrab could then be sent to the girl’s partner as phoney evidence that she’s unfaithful.
Other scenarios proposed by TikTokers include ill-advised edits to texts sent to bosses, friends and family members.
However, the danger the edit feature poses is a little overhyped.
The recipient of a message is alerted that it has been edited, leaving little room for misinterpretation.
Apple has decided not to publish records of changes made to texts in a conversation, however.
This record is kept public on apps such as Facebook to avoid confusion or misdirection.
Apple announced the edit Messages tool on June 7 during its WWDC 2022 conference in California.
The ability to unsend and edit iMessages will be added as part of iOS 16, the iPhone’s next major software update.
Not all iMessages can be tweaked or deleted: there’s a time limit.
You only have 15 minutes to make any changes to a text before the option runs out.
Rival chat app WhatsApp already has an unsend feature – but there’s currently no function to edit texts.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
