It is official – Twitter is testing out an edit button.
The social media platform confirmed that it was looking into an edit button in the lead up to its current Elon Musk saga, and now the feature is being tested out in Twitter Blue.
At the time of writing, it remains to be seen whether this feature will only be made available to those who pay a monthly subscription to Twitter Blue, but for now, that is where it is being tested out.
In terms of its functionality, a blog post notes that you will be able to edit a tweet a handful of times within a 30 minute window of it being published. Said edited tweet will also feature a message (seen above) detailing when the date and time it was last edited.
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1565318587736285184
“For this test, Tweets will be able to be edited a few times in the 30 minutes following their publication. Edited Tweets will appear with an icon, timestamp, and label so it’s clear to readers that the original Tweet has been modified. Tapping the label will take viewers to the Tweet’s Edit History, which includes past versions of the Tweet,” the blog post explained.
“For context, the time limit and version history play an important role here. They help protect the integrity of the conversation and create a publicly accessible record of what was said,” it added.
Around the office the sentiment to this news is mixed. On one hand the ability to edit tweets is indeed useful, but on the other, given some of the vitriol that can be shared on the social media platform, users can very easily skew what they represent online.
We are hoping this test will help Twitter refine the feature, as its potential to be abused or exploited is high.
“Later this month, we’ll be expanding Edit Tweet access to Twitter Blue subscribers. As part of their subscription, they receive early access to features and help us test them before they come to Twitter. The test will be localized to a single country at first and expand as we learn and observe how people use Edit Tweet. We’ll also be paying close attention to how the feature impacts the way people read, write, and engage with Tweets,” the blog post concludes.
We will have to wait to see whether the edit button will exit Twitter Blue.
