Apple revolutionized messaging with iMessage by offering free-of-cost service, powering them with the internet, and adding features like voice messages, stickers, attachments, and more. Now, the company wants to offer an option that would allow you to edit messages even after they’re sent.

While there are messaging apps that offer editing after being sent, nothing is as popular as iMessage and integrated deeply into Apple’s operating systems. So, the Cupertino-based brand is trying to incorporate that feature directly into the stock Messages app. In a recent leak, we also saw signs of Apple bringing mentions inside the Messages app.

According to a patent that Apple filed with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office), the company is trying to bring edited texts and an application launcher directly within the Messages app in iOS. The patent goes on to explain how current-generation messaging apps are limited, and how they don’t offer features like message acknowledgment, editing previously sent messages, display private messages, synchronize content between users, and handwriting input.

It goes on to show that current apps also lack quickly locating content inside a messaging thread, camera integration, sharing content, and built-in interactive apps. It also talks about stickers, mobile payments, suggestions, interaction with virtual avatars, foreign language translation, message flagging, and combining messages into a group.

Apple’s new patent says that users would be able to use more effects to make an impact on a message, such as current balloon and fireworks effects. It proposes using gestures and multi-touch taps to add such message effects. The company has put forward an idea to let mini-apps inside the Messages app to interact with messages that are being sent. Some apps can edit messages while others can delete a message from the opposite user’s phone.

A drawing provided in the patent’s document shows how mini-applications can allow users to interact with messages. The UI looks similar to the iOS dock that’s present on the home screen, but it’s present inside the Messages app. This solution could make the Messages app identical to the Chinese firm’s app WeChat, which became as popular as it is right now because of the integration of mini-apps.

Our Take

While there are plenty of apps like Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram, and WhatsApp that have various built-in features for instant messaging, Apple plans to go far beyond features that current-generation rival apps offer. Plus, since the Messages app is built right into iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, the company can bring all those features to millions of users with a single rollout.