When I delete a iMessage from a conversation, does it get deleted from the recipients screen as well ?

"copyright notice to all the messages you right"

I know this is an old thread; but I was curious myself if it was possible to delete a text sent by mistake and it remove from both sides of the conversation..

But its hilarious when people try to sound smart, and pass information off as fact when they can't even determine the difference between "right" and "write."

Reading through this post, there are some stupid examples about why it should not be possible. One example being (and this a repeated several times by multiple people) "illegal to go into my device a delete a text message." The original poster never once asked about physically (meaning picking up someone else's phone) and manually delete a message/text.

Another ___ person uses the postal server and a letter as an example.. Except the person is wrong, sorta. Yes you can "unsend" a letter UNLESS it has a tracking barcode. A Letter and/or package with a tracking barcode can be recalled before delivered.

There is no legal reason why a message(iMessage) can't be recalled once sent and/or delivered. And for you ___ people that compared it to a SMS, WRONG! iMessage does not function in the same was an SMS is. Once an SMS is delivered, there is no trace of it in order to recall/delete it.

That's not even what I meant by that. I'm referring to a traceable number and/or ID (like a tracking number for a package.) "The SMS/MMS centers" (I'm assuming you mean the carriers, because there is no "SMS/MMS centers") log the text to your account in their database; it's time stamped, not encoded with an ID tag.

McBaer wrote:

Reading through this post, there are some stupid examples about why it should not be possible. One example being (and this a repeated several times by multiple people) "illegal to go into my device a delete a text message." The original poster never once asked about physically (meaning picking up someone else's phone) and manually delete a message/text.

Why do you think "going into" means having any physical contact? There are laws, in the U.S. at least, that make it illegal to "go into" someone's device or data electronically. It's not legal for me to delete information off your computer or your phone without your permission or a proper warrant.

I'd really like to see citations for retrieving mail that has already been given to the USPS (if you're in the U.S.).

Thanks.

Because the content on MY COMPUTER, belongs to me, not you. That's a completely different concept. If you are going to make an analogy to something, at least make sense with it, and have it relate to the actual subject matter.

If I'm sharing a cloud drive with someone else, I would have the right to delete files, and it would in turn delete from any linked device.. And they also have the ability/right to delete files as well... Or is Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, and every other cloud server enabling people the break the "law." Or apps like Snapchat are breaking the law by forcefully deleting messages. Or Google again is breaking the law, but having an UNDO send option in Gmail.. again your legal logic is garbage.

When you enter into a written conversation via text/sms/imessage/etc both parties have rights to it. If someone wishes to delete a message, it should be their right to do so.

Learn to Google: https://pi.usps.com/cpi/howItWorks.jsp USPS Intercept service

McBaer wrote:

"The SMS/MMS centers" (I'm assuming you mean the carriers, because there is no "SMS/MMS centers")

No, I don't mean carriers. Yes, there is no "centralized" center (like Blackberry).

The SMS/MMS center is a portion of the network maintained by the carriers. It's the server portion of the network for their own SMS/MMS messages.

log the text to your account in their database; it's time stamped, not encoded with an ID tag.

You don't think SMS/MMS are traceable?

LOL

McBaer wrote:

Because the content on MY COMPUTER, belongs to me, not you. That's a completely different concept. If you are going to make an analogy to something, at least make sense with it, and have it relate to the actual subject matter.

Exactly. When you send me an SMS and I receive it, it's own my phone. It's mine. You no longer have the right to remove it from my phone.

The link you sent was interesting but appeared to only apply to a certain subset of business customers. But, even if it applies to everyone, my analogy is still more apt. Once you send me a piece of mail and it's delivered, you can't have it back. You can't, legally, remove it from my mail box.

I think you're trying to suggest it should be possible/permissible to "unsend" an SMS after it gets sent but before it gets delivered. The OP's question was about deleting things already on the recipient's phone. Unlike mail, SMS delivery is almost instantaneous. So, in practical terms, once it's sent, unless there's a network issue or the recipient's phone is off, it's delivered.

I not once mention retrieving/deleting a SMS. In fact I stated it's not possible, due to technical limitations. SMS and iMessage are not the same thing. They are sent or received via the same standards.

And no your analogy is far from correct. There's a different between deleting a file from someone's computer that you have nothing to do with, and deleting and IMESSAGE that consists of to parties (people.)

Also hate to break it to you but that mailbox in front of your home, is NOT yours. It legally belongs to the US postal service/government. And by law everyone is required to have one. You must purchase and provide one, but it belongs to the government. Tampering with the mailbox is federal offense. And also that letter recall service is available to any one. If you have a tracking number on the parcel then you can call and have it returned.

Not traceable in the sense that you think. Once a user sends a SMS it's routed through the carrier, which the carrier logs it with a time stamp and details of where it was sent be where it's going. Then it's sent on to the recipient. The recipient device does attach any kind of identifying ID to that SMS. It's not kept/stored in the device in anyways that would allow retrieving it specially by the carrier or other parties.

iMessages however do. So that when you delete a message one place it knows which message to delete in other places. Or when you 3D Touch a message and give it a "heart" it knows which message to apply that to on the recipients device.

Point being it's technically possible to allow the function the OP wants. And as far as it being illegal is garbage. It's the same process as deleting a file on the clouded shared between 2 people that have access. If one deletes it, then it's gone for both people.

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McBaer wrote:

And no your analogy is far from correct. There's a different between deleting a file from someone's computer that you have nothing to do with, and deleting and IMESSAGE that consists of to parties (people.)

I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that just because you sent the SMS, you still have some ownership of it once it's on my phone. You don't. You have ownership of the copy that is on your phone but not the copy on mine.

And, I'm beginning to think you're being deliberately obtuse about the mail analogy. By "delivered to me" I don't mean in my mailbox (I don't have one, by the way. I have a slot in my front door.) I mean once I have it and have opened and read it which would be the closest comparison to my having an SMS from you on my phone. At that point, you have no right to have that letter back.

McBaer wrote:

Point being it's technically possible to allow the function the OP wants. And as far as it being illegal is garbage. It's the same process as deleting a file on the clouded shared between 2 people that have access. If one deletes it, then it's gone for both people.

It's not the same because the phone is not a shared space like the cloud account.

Your premise is not entirely reasonable. You sent the message, voluntarily (even if you accidentally sent it to the wrong recipient), using a messaging system that does not facilitate remotely deleting messages from other devices.

You can't walk out on a crowded street and shout something, then recall the shout. You can't walk in a theater and yell fire then just take it back. You cannot drop a letter in a USPS mailbox then reach in and take it back (not legally). You can't send an email then recall it. Even if you send it from Microsoft Outlook via an Exchange server, the recall feature is hard to find, only works if the recipient has not yet read the email on any device that they are able to read email on, and only works if the recipient has the Outlook app actually open somewhere, and even after all that, the mechanism only moves the message to the recipient's deleted folder where they can still find it, and is not 100% reliable. That is, unless you DRM-enable the message, which requires that you have a public/private keypair properly configured and so on. It's complicated. What I'm saying is that what you're asking is not a particularly common feature anywhere.

There are some services that let you set expiration timers on messages. Whatsapp recently added the ability to remotely delete messages, but there are still caveats.

Actually, any recipient using MS Outlook has to enable the sending of read receipts and the ability to retract a message. A sender cannot enable those settings on any recipients system. With a corporate email system, the system admin can override that and globally enable such things for every user (e.g. some companies do enforce read receipts), but I would be stunned to hear of any corporate system that even allows enabling of message revocation, by any user.

For personal users, if outlook is set to not send read receipts and to not allow revocation of a message, it doesn't matter what the sender does, wishes or hopes for. They can do nothing about it.

With all forms of communication, it is a long established legal principle that the sender surrenders all control of the contents of any message once it is sent and received by someone else. That applies to postal mail, telephone voice mail, emails, texts (internet messages and SMS/MMS messages), pages, FAXs, telegrams and anything else. Once the recipient receives it, their copy is theirs to do with as they please, not as anyone else wishes.

Apple would be sued out of existance if they allowed senders to revoke messages without the recipients consent. And quite bluntly, they cannot do it. Once the message is received, it's not on any device they have arbitrary remote access to anyway. Messages are not like IMAP or Exchange emails which live on a centrally managed server. Their time on Apple's hardware is merely long enough to send them, then they are purged.

I’m not so sure I would agree on the point that a sender has no right to delete/recall an iMessage on the receiving phone. It has been an undisputed standard to be able to delete/recall a sent email in Microsoft Outlook from the receiving computer(s) for two decades. I understand that it’s a different platform but the argument can be made that a sender should have the right over his/her own message.

No such standard exists with MS outlook or exchange and never has. Only the recipient can control whether they allow such behavior with their account. A sender cannot unilaterally recall an email. The sender must allow that on their system for it to work. Same thing goes for read receipts - the recipient controls whether they are on or off.

It‘s not merely manners or protocols. It is a legal precedent that anything arriving in someone’s inbox is either their property or the property of the email service provider (e.g. in the case of a company or employer provided Account).

That is the very reason the “standard” you refer to does not exist at all. Companies hosting exchange mail accounts own the messages received on their system. Not the sender. I’ve never had an employer email account, exchange or otherwise, where an outside sender can unilaterally recall a message - no company would allow such a setting on their systems.

Same thing goes for personal mail systems. Nobody has any legal right to unilaterally delete data from someone else’s device or account. All such actions on all systems require the active consent of the recipient and/or the recipients system admin (e.g. an exchange server admin can disable the ability of individual account holders to grant read receipts or recalls).

That depends on whether the Exchange email is being sent to a recipient outside of your organization or within your organization. You are incorrect about internal emails as my company has over 200,000 employees and Exchange allows you to recall ANY messages within your organization without input from the receiver. In my role as an analyst I just sent an email to a colleague as a test and then recalled it successfully. Exchange allows the email to be recalled and deleted from the recipients account or replaced with a new edited email, so I'm unsure where your confusion exists.