Twitter is finally developing a tweet editing feature

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(Pocket-lint) – It’s almost a joke at this point because Twitter users have wanted it for so long: an editing feature. But it looks like the feature could be coming soon, and it’s not just thanks to Elon Musk.

Twitter has announced that it is developing a way for users to edit tweets after posting them. Imagine you tweeted something only to read it again later and find you posted a mistake. With an edit button, you can fix your mistake, without having to delete, re-tweet and mess up all the replies and retweets. Twitter plans to test the feature with Blue subscribers in “ the next months “ .

In 2018 , former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey dashed hopes of an editing feature when he noted that such a feature could open the door to users changing the meaning of a tweet after it was shared. Two years later, he reiterated that sentiment, saying Twitter would “probably never” release an editing feature. Critics, however, argued that Twitter could still show an edited version history, allowing users to see the original tweet in all its typographical glory as well as the updated version.

So the belief that an edited tweet could be misleading never really held water.

Interestingly, when Parag Agrawal became CEO of Twitter, the tides began to change. In fact, the april fool’s day , the official Twitter account said it was “working on an editing feature”. Then, when Elon Musk bought a 9.2% stake in the company, he shared a poll with his Twitter followers asking if the platform should introduce an editing feature. A large majority was in favour.

1/ We have been exploring how to build a safe editing feature since last year and plan to start testing it in @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months. Let’s share some more ideas on how we’re thinking about Edit https://t.co/WbcfkUue8e

— Jay Sullivan (@jaysullivan) April 5, 2022

Now Jay Sullivan, the company’s vice president of consumer products, says an editing feature has been “the most requested Twitter feature for many years,” and Twitter has been exploring it since last year. . “Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency over what was edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of public conversation,” he explained.

“Protecting the integrity of this public conversation is our top priority when approaching this work.”

If an edit function launches, it will be different from the undo function which allows you to recall a tweet before sharing it. This is only available to Blue subscribers.

Written by Maggie Tillman.