Twitter Confirms Development Of Edit Button

Tom Jowitt,
ISIS

Worse kept secret? Twitter finally confirms it is developing an edit button so users can change their tweets after posting them

Twitter officials have confirmed what is perhaps the worst kept secret, with the news it is working on an edit button.

This has been the subject of media headlines in the past week, especially after Twitter’s newly installed largest shareholder (Elon Musk) publicly campaigned on the issue.

Indeed, Musk lost little time in exercising his newly found influence, when he posted a poll about the platform asking users whether they wanted an Edit Button.

elon musk, tesla, spacex
Image credit: SpaceX

Edit button

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who took over from Jack Dorsey late last year, reacted quickly to the poll when he retweeted it and asked users to consider the consequences and vote carefully.

It should be noted that on 1 April (April Fools’ Day), Twitter had tweeted a message on its official account, saying it was working on the long-awaited “edit” feature.

When asked if the tweet was a joke, the platform had replied, “We cannot confirm or deny but we may edit our statement later.”

Now Twitter has said it would start testing the idea in the coming months, when the platform’s communications team tweeted the following.

Twitter Blue is the platform’s subscription service, where users get early access to features it is testing.

Long overdue?

Jay Sullivan, the company’s head of consumer product also confirmed the upcoming arrival of an edit button.

The arrival of the Edito button will allow Twitter users to change their tweets after posting them, while keeping all replies, likes, retweets etc.

Rivals such as Facebook and Instagram have offered an Edit button for a while now.

In May 2021, Twitter in an effort to clean up the toxic atmosphere on its platform, gave users a ‘reconsider prompt’ if they try to post something nasty or mean.

But previous CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey was said to be against a full blown edit button feature due to transparency concerns.

But an edit button has been one of the most commonly requested features from users, Sullivan revealed.

Earlier this week Twitter confirmed that Musk had been appointed to its board of directors.

That was somewhat surprising, considering that Musk has been vocal of his criticism of Twitter for a while now.

Indeed, last week he spoke out against his favoured communication outlet when he said he was giving “serious thought” to building a rival platform, while questioning Twitter’s commitment to free speech.