Messaging platform Line has added the ability for users to retrieve messages they’ve sent in error.

The unsend feature, which has been added via an update out today, gives users a 24 hour window for unsending missives — so it’s considerably more generous than the unsend option rival platform WhatsApp added in October (which offers a mere seven minutes for users to realize their regrets).

Line doesn’t cite WhatsApp in its explainer for launching the unsend feature — claiming instead that it wants to give users “peace of mind” and expand their “communication choices”.

Line’s unsend feature can be used across chat types — in one-to-one conversations, multi-user and group chats.

It will also work whether a message has been read or not.

Message types that can be deleted within 24 hours of being sent are listed as: text and voice messages, stickers, images, videos, URLs, Line Music links, contacts, location information, files, and call history.

However smartphone OS notifications cannot be deleted. In addition, Line’s implementation of the feature displays a notification in the chat room indicating that a message has been deleted.

Which means there will always be a trace of any regretful texts you’ve sent in the previous hours — even if you’re gaining the ability to nix the actual content.

Mobile and desktop versions of Line support unsend, with the (current) exception of the Google Chrome version of Line which will only let users receive notifications for messages their friends unsend. “If you wish to unsend a particular message, please use Line on a different device,” it notes on that.

An additional caveat for the feature to work as billed is that you’ll need everyone in a chat where you want to recall a message to have updated to the version of Line that supports the feature. So there will inevitably be a period of time when unsend will not work as intended.

But, down the line, once all your contacts have updated their apps then Line message recalls should be good to go.

To use the feature, a Line user needs to press (or right click) on the specific message or content they want to recall and then select ‘unsend’ from the menu.