It’s a feature that Twitter users have wished for for so long that it’s become a meme, but finally the fabled “edit button” is becoming a reality. Twitter has revealed that it is working on a feature that would allow users to edit their tweets after they have been published. The idea is that you’ll be able to correct any mistakes or inaccuracies in a tweet without destroying any of the tweet’s existing replies, retweets, or likes. Twitter said Tuesday that it wants to begin testing the function with Twitter Blue subscribers in the “coming months.”
In a thread on Tuesday, Jay Sullivan, the company’s VP of consumer product, stated that editing had been the “highest requested Twitter feature for many years.” Since last year, the corporation has been investigating how to develop the function “safely.”
Image Source – Twitter
“Without time constraints, restrictions, and disclosure of what has been modified, Edit might be abused to alter the record of public discourse,” he stated. “When we tackle this work, our first objective is to safeguard the integrity of that public conversation.”
For so long, people have been pleading for an edit button that it’s become a running joke. “Tweets, but editable” has been the customary reaction when a popular tweet contains a typo. However, Twitter’s former CEO, Jack Dorsey, has previously expressed reservations about adding such a function. Dorsey expressed concern in 2018 that an edit button may allow users to modify the meaning of a tweet after it has been widely shared, and he stated in 2020 that Twitter would “probably never” introduce the function.
After Parag Agrawal became CEO, Twitter’s stance on an edit button appears to have evolved. Twitter’s official account stated on April 1st, the annual day of corporate deception, that it was “working on an edit button.” Although the tweet was initially misinterpreted as a joke, Twitter product head Michael Sayman later cited it as the company’s “official comment” on the feature.
Days later, following the revelation that Elon Musk had purchased a 9.2 percent share in Tesla, the Tesla CEO’s first important tweet was a poll asking his followers whether Twitter should add an edit button. 73.4 percent favoured it.
