We need a way to control allowing people we interact with to “unsend”

currently anyone can unsend a message, and it will disappear from your messages. This should not be forced, but rather we should have the choice to allow this feature, as messages received can act as a document between two people, provide verification of what was discussed, and one should not need a court order in order to see a text that he or she has already received, whether it’s been read or not (especially if it’s been read).

The feature is cool, of course it’s great that the guy in the commercial didn’t kill the Gecko. But even on a metaphysical level, that commercial isn’t even morally right: the guy screwed up watching the gecko, he almost killed him.

here are real-world examples of how it can be negative for a user. If you are a boss and using text for work and you have an employee who is able to delete messages, that isn’t very good for the employer. And likewise it can go the other way around. I actually work in the Freelance world in video production and text messages are proof of my agreement on my day rate (pay) and other stipulations and agreements. On nonunion jobs where you don’t always sign an agreement beforehand, this is vital information one needs to prove his or her rate. This is just one of many examples, there are trillions of examples. I’m not trying to get rid of the feature, I think it needs to be controlled.

In another argument I’ve seen here, people who have given their phones to their younger children with the agreement that they can view their text message— which they have the right to do—are finding it hard to confidently trust their children who are nowadays just unsending their messages as soon as they send them. Again, one of a trillion examples