Twitter confirms an edit button is in the works

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June 2, 2022

Screenshot from Twitter

Twitter’s vice president of consumer product, Jay Sullivan, confirmed they have been working on an edit feature since last year. Twitter plans to begin testing the feature within Twitter Blue labs, the toolkit available to premium users, in the upcoming months.¹

This new feature will make it easier for users to fix any typos or errors in their tweets without deleting and reposting them. The feature provides a solution for the issue users face when they find a mistake in their tweet after it has been viewed and interacted with.

Screenshot from Twitter

Elon Musk’s involvement

There has been some speculation that this announcement came after Elon Musk became the company’s biggest shareholder and latest board member. He then tweeted a poll asking his followers if they wanted an edit button, resulting in 73.5% of people voting in favor of the button. ² Twitter CEO, Parag Agrawal quote tweeted Musk’s poll stating that the ‘consequences of this poll will be important’ and advised users to vote carefully.

Twitter confirmed they had been working on this feature since last year, but it seems like Musk’s tweet may have sped the launch process along.

Screenshot from Twitter

Restricting the edit button

Jay Sullivan mentioned in a thread that an edit button had been the most requested Twitter feature for years.³ The primary function of the edit button would be to correct typos, mistakes, and hot takes in the moment without having to delete and repost the tweet.

Sullivan mentioned the edit button would need to come with certain restrictions to protect the integrity of Twitter. He would want it to come with time limits, controls, and transparency regarding what has been edited. This would prevent the possible issue of people abusing the edit button. The biggest concern is that users would change the meaning of a tweet after it has been widely shared.

Written by Esther Rodriguez

Image design by Minnie Huynh

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