There are few people who have never sent a message which they later regretted. Finally the tech world has devised a way for us to avoid embarrassing gaffes in a straightforward way.

A new app called Ansa allows you to delete that message to your boss, wife, potential girlfriend or boyfriend, hopefully before they have read it.

It has been created by Californian Natalie Bryla, aged 23, and is marketed as ‘the safest place to let go, and be yourself with friends’.

The app is similar to Snapchat, in that messages can take the form of photos, videos and drawings as well as words, and can be set to expire just seconds after being viewed.

Ansa, however, also enables users to remotely delete messages from other people’s devices.

So, if you’re nifty enough, you can still save your blushes, even after pressing ‘send’.