Our prayers have been answered
After what feels like an eternity of waiting, Twitter looks like it’s finally getting an edit button after details of the feature were recently shared online.
Researcher Jane Manchun Wong, one of Forbes’ 30 under 30, shared screenshots to Twitter that seemingly revealed plans for a button that allows you to make changes to tweets after they’ve been posted.
Wong regularly digs into online platforms, analysing code and posting her findings on social media and appears to be the first person to publicly share details of this long-awaited Twitter feature.
The edit button appears via a dropdown menu alongside regular features like pinning a tweet and viewing analytics. Once clicked, users can then edit the entire tweet or delete it altogether.
How an edited Tweet looks like on Twitter Web App: pic.twitter.com/boouYlvhA3
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 2, 2022
Wong also confirmed that the “Edit: soup*” line was done for “dramatic effect” and is not how the feature will function.
However there’s one small caveat to this long-awaited feature – as users will only have 30 minutes to use it before the tweet becomes set in stone.
the current unreleased version of Edit Tweet reuploads media (images, videos, GIFs, etc) instead of reusing them. an inefficient use of the bandwidth and media processing power, might be lossy too. plus it turns my video into an image (mishandling media type) pic.twitter.com/HjoIA0CZhO
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 2, 2022
There have been concerns that an edit button could make it difficult to hold people accountable for what they put on social media. However, Wong’s screenshots reveal an “edited” tag that enables users to view all previous versions of the tweet.
Clarification: The Edit Tweet feature does let you create a new Tweet edit with an entirely different content, not just an additional line
I just added “edit:” because for comedic effect and that’s how I personally use the edit feature on Reddit https://t.co/KdtJrXz7qz
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 2, 2022
It’s not yet clear whether the edited versions will update in news articles or anywhere else where social media posts are embedded.
Another tag reading “There’s a new version of this Tweet” will also update users on newer versions of posts.
While you might assume that the news is down to 50-year-old SpaceX CEO Musk, who bought the social media platform on April 14, Twitter actually confirmed on April 1 that they had been working on the edit feature since 2021.
https://twitter.com/twittercomms/status/1511456430024364037?lang=en-GB
They also said that their idea was not inspired “from a poll”, which could reference Musk’s own Twitter poll entitled “want an edit button.”
Related links:
- Elon Musk promises to get rid of one group of Twitter users
- Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $41bn
- Jeff Bezos offers Elon Musk advice on how to turn Twitter HQ into homeless shelter
