How to unsend a text

Many of us have wished at least once in our lifetime if there was a way to undo a text message. It's a very disappointing situation when we just send a message to someone that we regret a moment later. Having an unsent option will surely be a lifesaver in those situations. If you are reading this now, then I presume you have faced this too. So, maybe you are looking for a way to unsend a message if this happens to you again in the future.

In today’s world, communication technology has risen a bunch of steps further than it was a few days ago. Now we are very familiar with the message unsend option available on popular social media apps like Messenger, Whatsapp, Telegram, etc. But when it comes to unsend messages on the traditional SMS platform, we start to get panicked.

Can you unsend traditional phone SMS?

To your dismay, it’s still a big no! You can’t unsend an SMS that you sent through the traditional cellular system. But you can stop it from being sent if you react very quickly right after pushing the send button. Once you push the send button, the phone takes a few seconds to send the message. Putting your phone on airplane mode immediately could stop the message from being sent. This trick works for both android and iOS phones. Or you can just unplug the phone battery or sim card if you are using a button phone. 

But once a message has been sent, there is no way to remove it from the recipient's phone, unless you rush to them and request them not to see the message. So, if there is really no way to unsend an SMS, what’s the point of writing this article? Well, it seems there is a way if you use some specific SMS apps. Here in this short guide, I will show you how to unsend a text even after the message has been sent. I will also provide the apps that you will need for this task. Keep reading. 

Unsend text message on Android phone

Using the “On Second Thought” app: The “On second thought app” can undo a message if you decide to unsend it before 10 seconds passes. This is very handy when you mistakenly push the send button and want to unsend it immediately.

Install the On Second Thought app from the google play store and make it your default SMS app. Now when you use this app to send SMS, the receiver will receive SMS just like they normally do. They don’t have to install the app to receive the text! 

When you write a message on this app and click the send button, you will see that a progress bar is running on the message box. By default, the progress bar will take 10 seconds to be completed. Once it is complete, the message will be sent. If you decide to stop the message from being sent, slide the message box on the left or right before the progress bar reaches the end. Sliding the message off the screen will stop and delete the message. 

If you think 10 seconds is still a short time to decide whether to unsend it, you can increase the time limit. Go to Settings from the app menu, you will see an option named Grace Period. Slide the Grace Period bar to increase it. 

Unsend SMS on ios

iOS also doesn’t allow you to unsent messages that have been sent. But you can use an app named CoverMe to get the unsend option. CoverMe is a secure messaging and calling app. You can chat and call with anyone securely online using this app. It offers a lot of amazing features along with military-grade encryption for protecting your privacy. 

When you send a message to someone using the CoverMe app, you can unsend a message despite being sent. But there is one drawback of this app. The receiver should also have this app installed on their phone to receive SMS from you. 

LINE Messenger

Line messenger is among the most popular communication apps on the internet. It’s free to use for both android and ios platforms. It works like Whatsapp. To communicate via Line messenger, both users have to have this app installed on their phones. Line Messenger allows you to unsend a message before it passes 24 hours from being sent. So, you can use it to save yourself from "text-regret" since you can delete the message from the recipient's phone! 

Line Messenger is available on both the Google play store and the iOS app store.