Apple looks to make editing sent Messages possible at last

Posted:
in General Discussion edited July 2020
Apple has conducted extensive research into every aspect of Messages, that all hints at editable text in the short term, and perhaps a WeChat-like series of mini-applications in the future.

Detail from a patent drawing, added to an iPhone
Detail from a patent drawing, added to an iPhone


After passwords and perhaps tweets, text Messages are the shortest things any iPhone user will ever write on their device. Yet Apple is anything but short or concise on the topic, as a new patent application about messages runs to 980 pages, and 200,000 words. Much of this describes familiar features, but there are also key ones about editing text -- and building an application launcher with Messages itself.

The application, "Devices, Methods, and Graphical User Interfaces for Messaging," says that it is about electronic devices that display "a messaging user interface of a message application."

"But current messaging applications have numerous drawbacks and limitations," says the patent. "For example, they are limited in their ability to easily: acknowledge messages; edit previously sent messages; express what a user is trying to communicate; display private messages; synchronize viewing of content between users; incorporate handwritten inputs..."

Apple isn't holding back. The account of deficiencies in current messaging apps, including Apple's own, continues. "[They are limited in how users can] quickly locate content in a message transcript; integrate a camera; integrate search and sharing; integrate interactive applications; integrate stickers; make payments; interact with avatars; make suggestions; navigate among interactive applications; manage interactive applications; translate foreign language text; combine messages into a group; and flag messages."

It's then as if the 14 credited inventors got all that off their chests, and then rolled up their sleeves. Among the myriad improved features they describe are plenty that will immediately be familiar, at least in some form. These include way you can currently send images balloons or fireworks, but Apple wants to make more of that, and to make it easier too.

"There is a need for electronic devices with improved methods and interfaces for selecting an impact effect for a message," says. "Such methods and interfaces may complement or replace conventional methods for selecting an impact effect for a message."

The proposed methods chiefly involve multi-touch taps and gestures that will doubtlessly seem obvious when demonstrated, but which are a little bewildering when described in a patent format. One such description starts -- note, just starts -- with detail like this:
"[A] method, performed at an electronic device having one or more processors, memory, a touch-sensitive surface, and a display, includes displaying a messaging user interface on the display, the messaging user interface including a conversation transcript of a messaging session between a user of the electronic device and at least one other user, and a message-input area that includes a first message input.
That description goes on to detail how a Messages has to react to a touch, or a first contact, by registering the location and also timing of it. When a first contact is followed by a second one, such as a second finger tapping another message, the system changes the way it offers the user "in the plurality of impact effect options."

There are equally detailed descriptions of how to improve on the number and use of, for instance, stickers in a message. Similarly, the patent aims to build on the current system of letting users use Apple Pay to send money from within Messages.

Where the patent starts to cover new material, it does so especially in these two important areas of editing text, and running applications. You can already run, for instance, 1Password, within Messages, but it's limited in the same way that you can strictly speaking edit a message now. Today your options are really just to delete ones, and that doesn't delete it from the other users in the conversation.

Apple wants to bring full text editing capability for after you've sent a message, and it wants to bring much fuller apps to within Messages, too.

Editing Messages

Some messaging services, such as Slack, do allow you to edit a message after you've posted it. These are generally working within one central environment, though -- they're not transmitting a message to another user over the cellular network. Each user is logged in to the central server, so an edit can be applied there by the writer and seen by all readers.

With text messaging, it's much more complicated to retrieve a sent message, edit it, and send it back. Apple's Messages is not the only service that currently can't support this. While WhatsApp has a "Delete Messages for Everyone" feature that lets you remove an entire erroneously-sent message, it doesn't have the ability for you to edit instead.

Detail from the patent showing how a user might elect to edit a previously-sent message
Detail from the patent showing how a user might elect to edit a previously-sent message


Interestingly, Apple's patent does not mention any of the behind-the-scenes technology that would be required to retrieve, edit and sync back previously-sent messages, but it does go into extreme detail over multiple ways that the user could do such an edit.

"The first message can be edited, despite the fact that it has already been sent," it starts. "To initiate the editing of the first message, the user selects the first message with a predefined touch input (e.g., a tap gesture, long press gesture, light press gesture, or deep press gesture) on the first message or the message region for the first message."

Then Messages on the device would display a menu, or perhaps go straight in to "a message editing interface." It presents a keyboard during the editing, and then "displays a revised version of the message, and detects an input" that sends the edited message on to its recipients.

While that part, and most of the patent, specify keyboards being used for editing, there are multiple references to an alternative. "There is a need for electronic devices with improved methods and interfaces for using handwriting inputs in a messaging application," says. "Such methods and interfaces help improve user satisfaction with their devices and produce more efficient human-machine interfaces by allowing users, e.g., to simply rotate their device in order to begin entering handwritten inputs."

Applications in Messages

Apple does already give Messages more features than solely sending text or emoji messages to people. Alongside stickers, there are also ways to send restaurant contact details from an app, for instance. Many of these leverage third-party apps on the user's iPhone, but those apps are not really within Messages.

They may be coming, however. And one part of enabling this is to have a way for Messages to let users quickly find, launch, and use apps. Apple describes its methods for these as being for Application Management.

"[The] application area... includes: an application-input area that displays one or more activatable objects of a first application," it says, "and an application-selection area that includes: a plurality of scrollable application-selection affordances."

Detail of one possible application manager, or launcher, looking like the iOS Dock
Detail of one possible application manager, or launcher, looking like the iOS Dock


Affordances are typically features that guide the user, so as he or she looks for an app, this might be a pop-up display that says what an application is, or offers some helpful options. In some of the drawings in the patent, this application management is shown as looking very much like the iPhone's regular Dock, just within Messages.

What's more significant than the specifics of how this may all look, though, is that the plan is to bring much more application functionality to within Messages. This could make Apple's solution work in a similar way to how China's extraordinarily successful WeChat mixes countless apps within its messaging service.

So perhaps this is part of a longer-term plan for Apple, as it looks to its own future and the future of how people use messaging services. But in the short term, if it brings the ability to edit messages after you've sent them, that will be as big a boon as when iOS finally introduced copy-and-paste.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    MplsPMplsP Posts: 3,911member
    The only problem with this is we no longer get the benefit of all the autocorrect mistakes!
    razorpitSpamSandwichlkruppdjames4242macgui
  • Reply 2 of 19
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    Just add "save as draft message like Android google's message app and I will be very very happy. Than, I don't have to use Notes or email to write a draft message text than copy/paste into iMessage. In advance, thank you Apple.
    flyingdplkruppavon b7
  • Reply 3 of 19
    iOS_Guy80iOS_Guy80 Posts: 810member
    wood1208 said:
    Just add "save as draft message like Android google's message app and I will be very very happy. Than, I don't have to use Notes or email to write a draft message text than copy/paste into iMessage. In advance, thank you Apple.
    You have solved the Robles. Just continue to use email once you have created the draft.  Messaging has now become the new email which it wasn’t designed for to begin with.
  • Reply 4 of 19
    iOS_Guy80iOS_Guy80 Posts: 810member
    Should have taken your advice and done a draft first, My typo Robles should be problem.
  • Reply 5 of 19
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    They should license their patent to Twitter.
    StrangeDaysRayz2016
  • Reply 6 of 19
    The irony of writing a 980-page patent application concerning instant messaging.

    How on Earth is a patent clerk (if they are still called that--probably not) supposed to evaluate a document that long and complex as to whether there are any new, non-obvious ideas in there?  It must have cost at least a million dollars in salaries and legal fees to draft that monster.
    Rayz2016watto_cobrabeowulfschmidt
  • Reply 7 of 19
    All I want is an iMessage scheduler....
    Rayz2016watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 19
    This would have saved my marriage. One day I meant to send my wife a text reading, "I love you more than you'll ever know" but accidentally typed, "You ruined my life, you f***ing b*tch."
    edredigorskyRayz2016fastasleepwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 19
    edrededred Posts: 57member
    Add easy quoting for god's sake it's unbelievable they have not added such a basic feature so far.

    In fact I would encourage Apple to just rip off every WhatsApp feature they can. Including the resilience with which that applications works. Even with a crappy signal WhatsApp manages to send/receive messages with text, pictures and audio. On the other hand with the same crappy signal Messages fails to send even a simple text-only message most of the time.
    avon b7Anilu_777
  • Reply 10 of 19
    I don't care about editing messages. I would, however, like to see threaded messages.
  • Reply 11 of 19
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    My #1 request is quoting. Sometimes people send multiple unrelated things in a row. And yes, editing would be nice. Even if it was limited to like 10s after you sent the message, since you almost always notice right after sending.
    watto_cobraAnilu_777
  • Reply 12 of 19
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,350member
    I can see there would be nefarious reasons for editing a message after it's sent, but otherwise?

    Texting is something I don't do all that much so this proposed feature is lost on me at the moment. If I send a text that could be edited after the fact, I'd probably just send another "correct" text.

    If I need a word perfect document (ha!) I'd just use email. If these after the fact edits can be viewed by the recipient anyway (unless I read that wrong) what's the purpose or advantage of doing this in a text.

    At this point, this editing would seem beneficial to me if it could be done before the message was delivered or read. What am I missing about this?
    StrangeDayswatto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 19
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,625member
    This would have saved my marriage. One day I meant to send my wife a text reading, "I love you more than you'll ever know" but accidentally typed, "You ruined my life, you f***ing b*tch."
    Ha! I once sent this to a particularly sexy client (Translated into English):

    "Thank you for your birthday fellatio" 

    Auto correct nightmare. At least it was a female client although from my wife's perspective perhaps it would have been more explainable if it had been a male client. 




    igorsky
  • Reply 14 of 19
    igorskyigorsky Posts: 752member
    Can we, for the love of god, get message quoting (right swipe on WhatsApp)? Pretty please?
    Anilu_777
  • Reply 15 of 19
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member
    I still hate the change last year when it comes to attaching images from the camera roll. Now you have to tap into “Apps”, then the Photos app, then attach. Taking a picture is immediate with the camera icon, but I find 99% of the time I want to attach an existing photo. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 19
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    I still hate the change last year when it comes to attaching images from the camera roll. Now you have to tap into “Apps”, then the Photos app, then attach. Taking a picture is immediate with the camera icon, but I find 99% of the time I want to attach an existing photo. 
    Yes, this was done for consistency. Your photos come from an app, not the camera. 


    fastasleepwatto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 19
    artdentartdent Posts: 69member
    I'd settle for being able to mark a text message as unread, like we've been able to do with email for decades. I often read texts that require a response that I can't provide right away due to being too busy, etc. Then i get onto something else and forget all about it. Being able to have that little red dot come back up would be a great reminder.
    watto_cobraAnilu_777
  • Reply 18 of 19
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,625member
    artdent said:
    I'd settle for being able to mark a text message as unread, like we've been able to do with email for decades. I often read texts that require a response that I can't provide right away due to being too busy, etc. Then i get onto something else and forget all about it. Being able to have that little red dot come back up would be a great reminder.
    Yes. These are basic things and really should be there. 

    I think Telegram is probably one of the best instant messaging apps out there right now.

    Two days to edit text (since 2016 I believe), option to replace media if you send the wrong file, mark as unread 2x voicemail etc. 

    Definitely one to follow although WhatsApp remains the top dog here. 
    artdent
  • Reply 19 of 19
    Anilu_777Anilu_777 Posts: 521member
    BBM added edit and retract back in 2014 I believe. There are others that can also edit messages. What is it that they can do and iMessage hasn’t been able to do yet? Is it the link to SMS?
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