Facebook Tests Unsend Message Feature

Tech tipster Jane Manchun Wong has shown that Facebook has plans for an ‘unsend message’ feature.

Speculation about such a feature first appeared several months ago, after it was revealed that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had retracted messages that he sent to other users.

In the wake of that controversy, Facebook announced that the privilege was part of the development process and that the feature would be rolled out soon.

TechCrunch chased Facebook on this claim, and received the response: “Though we have nothing to announce today, we have previously confirmed that we intend to ship a feature like this and are still planning to do so.”

The code for the feature reportedly includes a time limit; this seems to indicate that users will need to retract or edit their sent messages within a specific period.

There is some concern that the feature could be used to send and delete abusive messages, making poor online behaviour more difficult to address.

Facebook may need to develop an innovative reporting mechanism before the interface can go life, therefore.

Jane Manchun Wong was also responsible for leaking some early Facebook Dating screenshots, as well as some planned Time Well Spent features.

Read more here.