A Twitter edit button is really coming. The longest running, easiest complaint in tech bro social media history may finally be over.
Twitter announcement This morning they were internally testing the new edit button, which they previously confirmed is in the works, and it will begin rolling out to users this month. As Twitter’s “most requested feature,” this seems like a big deal.
To access Twitter’s edit button in the coming weeks, you’ll need to be a Twitter Blue subscriber (now $4.99!). My guess is that this will always be a Twitter Blue feature, but Twitter’s selection pages leave open the possibility that Blue users will test it first before it’s rolled out.
For Twitter Blue users, the initial group of test customers “will initially be localized to a single country and expand as we learn and observe how people edit and use Tweets,” Twitter said in its announcement. They didn’t say what the country was. They recommend subscribing to the @TwitterBlue account and turning on notifications.
So how does an edit button on Twitter work? Here’s how the bulleted list works:
- An edit button actually allows you to change your tweet after it’s published
- You have only 30 minutes to tap the edit button
- You can edit a tweet “a few times” in that 30 minute window
- Edited tweets will get a special icon, timestamp and label so everyone knows it’s been edited
- If you tap that label, you’ll see a tweet history with the original
It makes a lot of sense if Twitter says we’re trying to “protect the integrity of the conversation.” Looking forward to testing it.