In brief: Twitter has confirmed it is working on an edit button. It's not an April Fools' Day joke, and the decision hasn't come as a result of its largest shareholder, Elon Musk, tweeting out a poll asking users if they want the feature.
The Twitter comms account wrote that it has been working on an edit feature since last year. Those who subscribe to the Twitter Blue service will get to try it out first, sometime in the coming months.
The company also emphasized that the edit button isn't arriving as a result of Elon Musk's poll. It was revealed this week that the Tesla CEO bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter worth around $2.89 billion on March 14, making him the company's largest shareholder. Musk then posted a poll asking if people wanted an edit button, which saw almost three-quarters of respondents vote in favor of the feature.
now that everyone is asking…
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) April 5, 2022
yes, we've been working on an edit feature since last year!
no, we didn't get the idea from a poll 😉
we're kicking off testing within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn't, and what's possible.
Twitter already revealed it was working on an edit button, but it purposely tweeted the announcement on April 1 so it would be taken as an April Fools' Day joke. Twitter product lead Michael Sayman later said the tweet was the company's "official statement."
A small demo GIF shows the feature will work by simply clicking on the three dots next to a posted tweet and selecting Edit Tweet.
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) April 5, 2022
Twitter's VP of consumer product, Jay Sullivan, said that an edit button had been the most requested Twitter feature for years, allowing people to alter tweets with mistakes and typos without needing to delete the entire post. However, he did note that "without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation," which is why the feature will take time and requires plenty of input.
3/ Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation. Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work.
— Jay Sullivan (@jaysullivan) April 5, 2022
If you want to be one of the first to try the edit feature, and get access to an Undo Tweet option that's available now, you can sign up to Twitter Blue right here.
https://www.techspot.com/news/94074-twitter-adding-edit-button-not-because-elon-musk.html
