Twitter is working on a feature to allow users to edit their tweets after posting them, the tech giant has announced. The feature will let users fix typos or errors in tweets without losing already-accrued retweets, replies, or likes. The company plans to begin testing the feature with Twitter Blue subscribers.
In a thread on Tuesday, Twitter’s Vice President of Consumer Product Jay Sullivan said the edit option had been “the most requested Twitter feature for many years”. The company has been looking into building the feature “in a safe manner” since 2021.
“Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation,” Sullivan said.
“Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work.”
The edit feature has been one of the most requested features for Twitter, going to the extent of becoming a meme, and attained almost mythical status.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was reluctant to add the feature in the past. In 2018, Dorsey expressed concern that the edit button would allow users change the meaning of a tweet after it gets shared. In 2020, he said Twitter would “probably never” add the edit option.
Concerns expressed by Dorsey have regularly cropped up around requests for an edit button.
However, Twitter’s opinion on the edit button seems to have changed since the arrival of Parag Agrawal as CEO. On April 1, Twitter’s official account said it was “working on an edit button.” Although it was taken as a joke, Twitter’s Product Lead Michael Sayman later pointed to the tweet as its official statement on the feature.
Days later, after it was revealed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had bought a 9.2% stake in the company, his first significant tweet was to poll his followers on if the company should add the edit button. A majority of 73.4% were in favour.
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The company already has an undo feature that lets users recall a tweet before sending it, but only available for Twitter Blue subscribers.
