Facebook is rolling out an unsend feature in Messenger, which lets you undo the delivery of messages that have already been sent. The feature is already rolling out to users in some countries.
Facebook promised the feature for Messenger seven months ago, when it secretly removed some private messages previously sent by CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Screenshots of the new feature have been appearing in recent weeks, but only in Colombia, Poland, Bolivia and Lithuania. It is expected to roll out to other parts of the world soon.
With the new unsend feature, you can remove a message from recipients' inboxes within 10 minutes of sending it. After this time limit, you can still delete the message from your window, but it will remain in recipients' inboxes.
But even after deleting a message, Facebook will keep it a little longer to check that there is no abuse of the service.
Facebook also appears to be working on related features, such as the ability to set messages or chat logs to expire after a significant period of time. While this feature could indeed be useful in protecting your privacy, Facebook also needs to ensure that it doesn't promote bullying.
