LINE Taiwan will adjust the “recall message” rules starting from December! Reduced from 24 hours to 1 hour, users need to be more careful when sending messages

LINE It is a communication tool that Taiwanese people use almost every day. Whether it is for work, family groups or chatting with friends, its existence is indispensable. In the past, if you sent the wrong message, you could still rely on “Retract message” function will be remedied within 24 hours; however, this “regret mechanism” will be significantly reduced. LINE officially announced that starting from December 2025, the time limit for recalling messages will be shortened to only one hour for Taiwanese users. In other words, if the wrong message or photo is sent in the future, if it is not discovered within an hour, the message will remain in the chat room and cannot be deleted. For many users who are used to discovering “mispronounced words” only the next day, this is definitely a big change in usage habits.

LINE Taiwan will adjust the “recall message” rules starting from December! Reduced from 24 hours to 1 hour, users need to be more careful when sending messages

LINE officially released the latest news announcement on the 2nd, mentioning that it will adjust the “recall message” rules. It was mentioned in the announcement that this adjustment is based on the observation of user behavior and consideration of the overall service experience. Although the flexible design of the past 24 hours has made many people feel at ease, at least they don’t have to worry about typing in the middle of the night and being able to fix it the next day, but the long recovery time has brought some worries. For example, the authenticity of conversation records has been challenged because when messages can be deleted after a day, the party who subsequently sees the conversation may misunderstand or even have a dispute due to the lack of content. In addition, the excessively long retraction time limit may also be abused. Some people will use this time to deliberately delete messages, so that the other party loses the basis or evidence for the conversation. In order to avoid such problems and to be consistent with other markets such as Japan and Thailand, LINE decided to simultaneously implement changes to shorten the recovery time in Taiwan.

As can be seen from the official announcement, the details of this adjustment are very clear. In the past, the rule was that a message could be retracted within 24 hours after it was sent, but after the new rules are put into effect, the retraction can only be carried out within one hour after the message is sent. In other words, if someone sends a message by mistake in the future, they must detect and handle it within just 60 minutes, otherwise the message will be left in the chat room. LINE stated that this policy will be gradually implemented for Taiwanese users starting in December 2025.

24 hours reduced to 1 hour, the impact of the change

For users in Taiwan, such changes are bound to have an impact on daily use. For example, if you send a message to a colleague or supervisor late at night and there is a typo or misunderstanding in the content, you used to be able to retract it immediately after discovering it the next morning. But in the future, when you get up, the one-hour time limit has already passed, and you can only watch the error message stay in the dialog box. For another example, if you accidentally upload a photo to a group that you shouldn’t enter, such as uploading a private conversation to a family group, or uploading a joke to a work group, if you don’t notice it immediately, you can’t remedy it. Such a change will force users to develop the habit of “confirm again before sending” and make everyone more cautious when sending sensitive or important information.

This is even more of a challenge for people who are used to sorting out messages and deleting erroneous content the next day. The past “delete the next day” behavior will no longer exist, and any oversight will be fixed immediately, which means that the immediacy of communication will be more strictly highlighted.

Why “1 hour”?

Many people are curious, since it needs to be adjusted, why did LINE choose the time of one hour? Although the official did not clearly state the reason, it is not difficult to speculate that this is a “compromise”. The one-hour design can not only meet the needs of most people to realize errors and remedy them in a short period of time, but also avoid communication confusion caused by too long a time limit.
After all, LINE, as an instant messaging tool, focuses on “real-time” rather than “long-term modification”. If the content of the conversation can be withdrawn after a day or even longer, the authenticity of the conversation will be greatly reduced, which is inconsistent with the positioning of instant communication. Therefore, one hour not only gives users the flexibility to “regret”, but also maintains the reliability of conversation records.

How should users respond?

Faced with such changes, Taiwanese users must adjust their usage habits. In the future, it is best to develop the habit of checking again before sending messages, especially in work or important groups, to confirm whether the text is correct, whether the attachment is complete, and whether the recipient is correct. For those who are prone to typos, you may consider typing the content in Notepad or Memo first, confirming it, and then posting it to LINE. This can reduce the chance of making mistakes. Sensitive information or data involving privacy should be transmitted more carefully to avoid unnecessary trouble caused by a momentary mistake. Once you discover a problem, you must act immediately and don’t delay, because once the time is up, you can never take it back.

What is the difference between “recall message” and “delete message”?

• “Recall Message” is a function that can be performed within 24 hours after sending the message (after adjustment in December 2025, it will be changed to 1 hour after the message is sent) to delete the chat message from your own and the other party’s chat room.
• The “Delete Message” function is different from the “Recall Message” function. It can only delete the messages in your own chat room, and the messages in the other party’s chat room will not be affected.

According to LINE Official description, the differences between “Recall Message” and “Delete Message” are as follows:

Further reading:

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Source: KOCPC Chinese