Twitter says it is actively testing edit button with select users
The trial of ‘Edit Tweet’ will begin with the firm’s employees and then be expanded to the platform’s ‘Twitter Blue’ subscribers.
Twitter says it has begun actively testing an edit button, after months of publicly discussing such a tweak.
The trial of “Edit Tweet” will begin with internal employees, then be expanded out to the platform’s “Twitter Blue” subscription population, the company said on Thursday.
“Edit Tweet is a feature that lets people make changes to their Tweet after it’s been published,” the company said on its blog. “Think of it as a short period of time to do things like fix typos, add missed tags, and more.”
Under the revision being studied, users could edit a tweet “a few times” in the 30 minutes after the initial posting, in ways that transparently note the changes to “help protect the integrity of the conversation and create a publicly accessible record of what was said”, the company said.
To make it clear that a tweet has been modified, they’ll be labelled and appear with an icon and timestamp. Users can look up past versions of the tweet by tapping the label.
Twitter said it’s testing the edit feature with a small group of users so it can identify and resolve potential issues.
“This includes how people might misuse the feature,” the company said. “You can never be too careful.”
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who is locked in a lawsuit with Twitter over a potential acquisition of the micro-blogging platform, had backed an edit button shortly before the company said in April that it was studying the change.
Users of Twitter Blue – the subscription offering now available in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – “receive early access to features and help us test them before they come to Twitter”, the company said.
The aim of the tweak? “Tweeting will feel more approachable and less stressful, Twitter said. “You should be able to participate in the conversation in a way that makes sense to you, and we’ll keep working on ways that make it feel effortless to do just that.”
However, a Twitter spokesperson said the test will not necessarily be employed universally on the platform.