iOS 16: a new feature will make… harassment easier

The new version 16 of iOS was presented during Apple's last keynote, at WWDC 2022, among other hardware and software announcements (summarized here). Among the new features, which are also numerous, there areone which concerns the Messages application, and iMessage more precisely. This is theability to edit and/or delete an iMessageup to 15 minutes after sending.

This is a major change for Apple's messaging app. Because despite its great popularity among iPhone owners, in terms of functionalities, it is far behind what the competition offers, in particular the big names of the genre, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal or even Facebook Messenger.

And precisely, this possibility of editing and deleting messages after sending has been present for several months with others, Slack or even Discord for example, two solutions having seen a massive gain in users during confinements in recent years.

First of all, we can only welcome Cupertino's approach to bringing this function to iMessage. But secondly, with a little hindsight, the Californian firm may have provided something that greatly facilitated harassment and invasion of privacy. Explanations.

An editing limit of +15 minutes? It's too much

The criticisms currently emanating about this functionality for editing/deleting sent messages mainly concern the time limit. She will be15 minutes in iOS 16. However, 15 minutes, as our colleagues at Apple Insider point out, is a long time. This leaves a lot of time for ill-advised people to carry out unscrupulous manipulations to annoy a person. For example :

• spam a target with pornographic photographs for 15 minutes, before erasing everything to remove traces
• request agreement from a target for certain comments, comments that the sender subsequently changes while the recipient's agreement cannot be revoked. Basically, someone asks you: “do you like pizza?” You answer: “yes”. The initial text is changed to “would you like to kiss me”? Original answer: yes.
• spam a target with offensive, racist, sexist comments, etc., before modifying the text to remove all evidence

Many abusive situations can be imagined, with people taking advantage of the functionality toharass a victim without much fear of being caught. It should still be noted that, when an edit or deletion is made on a message that has already been sent, the recipient is informed of the modification.

Still, let's think for a moment. What is such a feature initially used for? It is particularly useful in two situations that we all know:

• a message sent by mistake to the wrong recipient: for example, you send a bad joke to a potential new romantic partner by mistake. The message was actually meant to be sent to a friend. Luckily, you can delete the message before you ruin your new relationship potential
• you make a gross mistake in a word, or the iPhone's autocorrect replaces one word with another completely changing the meaning of the sentence. And the recipient is a very important person to you. But you still validate the sending before reading again. Fortunately, you can edit the message to correct errors before the recipient reads you

Except that in these cases, and the majority of other cases that one can imagine,it only takes one, two or maybe three minutes to correct the situation. Apple would therefore benefit from dividing its editing time limit by three, at least. Especially since by reducing the delay to a shorter moment, this would encourage senders to edit or delete their message quickly. They would therefore have more chance of acting before their recipient reads their works.

Finally, you should remember that the editing and deletion functionality after sending in the Messages apponly concerns iMessage. When sending SMS (green bubbles in the Messages app – by long-pressing your text, then “send as SMS”), you will not be able to edit it after sending.

What is your opinion? Is there any point in offering such a 15-minute time limit for editing and deleting an iMessage? Or do you think that this only brings more danger, especially for young audiences?

Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.