Twitter Is Finally Testing An Edit Button, But There’s A Catch
You can say goodbye to typos, but it’ll cost you.
This is not a drill: After enduring years of pleas from users of all ages and following sizes, Twitter is finally testing an Edit button. On April 5, the company announced its plans to launch a test for the highly requested feature later in 2022, but there’s a catch — only users subscribed to Twitter’s paid tier, Twitter Blue, will be selected to access the test. Here’s the rundown on everything you need to know about Twitter’s upcoming Edit button test.
If you’re like me, you probably saw the tweet from the official Twitter account on April Fools’ Day about the company “working on an Edit button” and rolled your eyes. Well, that may have been a preemptive exasperation, because on April 5, the company took to its Twitter Comms account to tweet out a big announcement: “Now that everyone is asking… yes, we’ve been working on an Edit feature since last year!” The tweet goes on to say, “We're kicking off testing within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t, and what’s possible.” I recant my eye roll. Sorry, Twitter.
ICYMI, Twitter launched Twitter Blue, a monthly subscription tier, in November 2021. The paid option offers exclusive perks, like streamlining information with Top Articles, organizing bookmarks with Bookmark Folders, customizing your navigation, testing features like the Edit button with Twitter Labs, and an Undo Tweet button, which is currently the closest thing the platform has to an edit feature.
If you’re not familiar with Twitter Blue, the Undo Tweet button gives users the chance to adjust a tweet within 60 seconds before it goes public. If you catch a mistake before those 60 seconds are up, you can preview, edit, or undo the tweet before it hits the timeline. It’s not as legit as a real Edit button, but it gets the job done (if you’re quick enough).
Though it’s unclear how the upcoming feature will be different from the Undo Tweet option, an April 5 Twitter thread from Jay Sullivan, the company’s Vice President of Consumer Product, seems to indicate the Edit button will stand on its own. In the thread, Sullivan explained the challenges of implementing an editing feature, striking a balance between providing a way to let users correct embarrassing spelling mistakes and not changing the content of a tweet. “It will take time and we will be actively seeking input and adversarial thinking in advance of launching Edit,” Sullivan tweeted. “We will approach this feature with care and thoughtfulness and we will share updates as we go.”
If you’ve been active on Twitter for a while, you know the coveted Edit button has been a long time coming. Before she passed the baby bar exam, Kim Kardashian practiced her persuasion skills on former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2018 to advocate for an editing feature. And in 2019, Dorsey teased the possibility of adding some kind of edit button to give users the chance to “clarify” a tweet with context. Cut to 2022, and Dorsey is out, but it looks like an Edit button is on its way in.
As for when users can expect the Edit button to hit their timelines, Elite Daily reached out to Twitter for more insight, but the company was unable to share any more updates. I guess the only way to find out how Twitter will make this miracle happen is to shell out $2.99 for Twitter Blue when the Edit button hits Twitter Labs later in 2022.
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