Twitter Starts Testing An Edit Button

Twitter is internally testing an editing feature that allows users to edit tweets for up to 30 minutes after they are posted, the social media company Announce in a tweet.

If you see an edited tweet, it’s because we’re testing the edit button

This happens and you will be fine

– Twitter September 1, 2022

“Think of it as a short period of time to do things like fix typos, add missed tags, and more,” the company said in a blog post.

High on users’ wish-lists for some time, Edited Tweets will follow Facebook’s lead and display an icon, timestamp, and label to indicate that the original tweets have been modified.

“We hope that with Tweet editing available, tweeting will feel friendlier and less stressful,” Twitter said in the blog post. “You need to be able to engage in the conversation in a way that makes sense to you, and we’ll continue to work on ways to make it feel easy to do that.”

The editing feature will initially only be available to Twitter Blue subscribers

It is currently undergoing internal testing to identify and resolve potential issues, and Twitter plans to expand access to tweet editing to Twitter Blue subscribers.

Paid monthly users will get early access to the feature as part of their subscription and ongoing testing.

“The test will be localized to one country initially and will expand as we learn and observe how people use Tweet editing,” Twitter said in the blog post. “We will be paying close attention to how the feature affects how people read, write, and interact with Tweets.”

Concerns about abuse

One of the reasons Twitter has been so slow in developing the editing feature is concerns about abuse. For example, people can modify a viral tweet to include spam, misinformation, or harassment after it has already been shared thousands of times.

Twitter hopes the 30-minute edit time frame and the inclusion of version history will prevent abuse in this way and “help protect the integrity of the conversation and create a publicly accessible record of what was said.”

Editing the feature will help sustain subsequent momentum

Social media professionals and personalities can use the editing feature to correct typos and add hashtags to published (and potentially liked and shared) tweets without deleting and reposting.

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