What was speculated as a joke earlier has turned out to be true. Twitter has officially acknowledged that it is working on an edit button that will be released soon to Twitter Blue subscribers for testing.
Twitter has officially announced that it is working on a feature that will allow users to edit their tweets after posting them. The edit feature will let users fix typos or errors in tweets without losing already-accrued retweets, replies, or likes, as per reports. The feature will be released to Twitter Blue subscribers as a part of testing in the coming months.
“Yes, we’ve been working on an edit feature since last year! No, we didn’t get the idea from a poll! We’re kicking off testing within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t, and what’s possible,” announced Twitter.
The edit feature has been one of the most requested features for Twitter since a long time and it had become a meme. Twitter first announced that it was working on the edit button on April 1. As it was April Fool’s Day, users took it as a joke and dismissed the news.
Later, on April 4, the news broke that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had bought a sizable 9.2 percent stake in Twitter. But Elon Musk being Elon Musk, did not announce the purchase, instead he fanned the fire of the long burning topic of the edit button by starting a poll on Twitter. The poll asked, “Do you want an edit button?” and 73.6 percent of the participants voted yes.
Twitter’s Product Lead Michael Sayman later pointed that the April 1 tweet was the official statement and in its announcement thread, Twitter clarified the idea of the edit button did not come from the poll.
In the past, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had been reluctant to add the edit feature. In 2018, Dorsey expressed concern that the edit button may be misused, and users may change the meaning of their tweet after it gets popular or shared. Later in 2020, Dorsey said Twitter would “probably never” add the edit button, reported CNET.
The concerns were also mentioned in the announcement made by Twitter’s Vice President of Consumer Product, Jay Sullivan. He wrote in his thread, that without time limits, controls and transparency about what has been edited, the edit option could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation. He added that protecting the integrity of the public conversation will be Twitter’s top priority when approaching the work on the edit button.
Twitter’s stance on the edit button seems to have changed since Parag Agrawal became the CEO. The company already has the undo feature that lets users recall a tweet before sending it on its premium monthly subscription service, Twitter Blue.
