Messaging editing, deletion and saving now available!

March 17, 2025 by olgax

No need to blush or melt in agony after sending a message anymore! Editing and deleting messages is now available in most app stores :)

How is this possible you might wonder?
There are three core pillars about how Delta Chat functions that maybe also help to rectify often occuring misconceptions:

  1. Delta Chat is not a classic e-mail client. It doesn’t show you the content of a mailbox (IMAP) folder. Delta only fetches new messages but never looks back at them. E-mail servers function as message transport only, not storage.

  2. Delta Chat uses special messages to co-ordinate encryption, metadata and group interactions. Examples for special messages are reactions, group creation or membership changes, multi-device synchronization messages, secure encryption negotiation and now also editing or deleting a past message.

  3. Delta Chat implements a Peer-to-Peer messaging paradigm. Unlike with other messengers including WhatsApp, Matrix, Threema or Signal, there is no server side metadata or message state so there is nothing to modify. Edit/Delete are just special messages interpreted by chat partners’ devices.

With those fundamentals out of the way, let’s look at the new features in turn and maybe start with “saving” messages before editing or deleting them ;)

Empowering “Saved Messages” memory

screenshot showing the new Saved Messages chat feature

When you forward a message to the “Saved Messages” chat the message will preserve a “>” link jump to the original message. Messages you saved will have a small bookmark icon in the chat so you can easily recognize that you already saved them. There also is a new action when you select a message to save or bookmark it so that it appears in “Saved Messages”. The best: saving/bookmarking is always synchronized between your devices.

Typo-fixing galore: Editing Messages

screenshot showing the new edit message feature

When you select a message, you can now pick the stencil (“edit” action) and will be back as if the message were a draft. Note that you can only edit the text but you can not change any attachments. Once you send the message, all your chat partners will see an “edited” message, also indicated the message bubble.

Deleting messages across devices

screenshot showing the new "delete for everyone" feature

In the past, every time you deleted a chat or a message from one device you would need to go to all your other devices and repeat the process over and over. Now message and chat deletion is synchronized across all your devices without breaking a sweat. If you posted something accidentally (passwords, wrong files or pictures etc.) you can also delete your own messages for everyone in the chat now.

Limits of rewriting the past?

Neither deletion or editing currently have particular restrictions, and there is no history of message edits. You can retract your own message from a year ago, and edit a message 10 times. Will this happen and cause annoyances? If so, we’ll see to address issues and iterate. In any case, antagonistic or malfeasant chat partners have also many other ways to trick and annoy, and it may be a good idea to avoid or block them generally. Meanwhile, enjoy your new typo-fixing, organizing and retracting powers!