How to Unsend a Facebook Message

You can unsend a Facebook message within 10 minutes of sending it. The version 191.0 release of Facebook Messenger supports the unsend feature, so you must upgrade the app for it to work.

Why Would You Want to Unsend Facebook Messages?

Let's say you just sent a message you instantly regretted, or you accidentally sent a personal message to the wrong person. Until 2018, delivered Facebook messages could not be unsent or removed from the recipient's inbox. Now, you have 10 minutes to take back your words, GIFs, emojis, or anything else you sent to an individual or group of people.

After 10 minutes, you can delete the message from your outbox, but the recipient still has it in their inbox. In the future, Facebook says it plans to let users set expiration dates for messages and conversation threads.

Can People Still See Unsent Facebook Messages?

Facebook users see messages sent to them instantly, so unsending a message doesn't prevent the recipient from seeing it. If you send a message and automatically unsend it, the recipient might receive a notification that you sent a message, even though they can't read it.

As part of its mission to prevent cyberbullying, Facebook administrators can see unsent messages for a short period of time in case a message is reported for policy violations. When someone unsends a message, the message is replaced by text indicating the message was removed. That way, you can report users for harassment by tapping the sender's name, then selecting Something's Wrong in the Facebook Messenger app.

How to Unsend Facebook Messages in a Web Browser

If you use Facebook in a desktop browser on your computer, you can unsend messages within 10 minutes. Here's how:

1. Drag the mouse over the message to display the ellipses (...).

2. Select the ellipses (...), then select Remove.

3. Select Unsend for everyone to remove the comment from the conversation.

4. Click Remove.

5. Click Okay to confirm.

6. The text you sent is gone. In its place, a bubble says, "You unsent a message." This bubble is visible to all participants.

How to Unsend Messages on Facebook Messenger

Whether you have an Android or iOS device, the process for unsending a message sent from the Facebook Messenger app is the same.

1. Tap and hold the message you just sent.

2. Select More.

3. Tap Remove.

4. Choose Unsend.

5. Select OK to confirm.

6. The item you unsent has "You unsent a message" in its place. Everyone in the conversation can see this.