Twitter Introducing Edit Button For Paying Subscribers

After years of pleading and internal debate, Twitter is finally launching an edit button for the first time for users who pay $4.99 per month for a “Twitter Blue” subscription.

The feature, called “Edit Tweet,” will let users make changes to tweets for up to 30 minutes after its original publication. Edited tweets will carry a label, which people can click to see what’s changed.

The company is now testing the feature among a small group of users to address any possible issues, according to Bloomberg, citing a Twitter blog post. The company will roll the feature out over the next few weeks.

if you see an edited Tweet it’s because we’re testing the edit button

this is happening and you’ll be okay

— Twitter (@Twitter) September 1, 2022

“It’s true: Edit Tweet is being tested by our team internally. The test will then be initially expanded to Twitter Blue subscribers in the coming weeks. Given that this is our most requested feature to date, we wanted to both update you on our progress and give you and a heads up that, even if you’re not in a test group, everyone will still be able to see if a Tweet has been edited.” – Twitter

The feature has been under internal debate for years – with some expressing concerns that it will be abused by people trying to push content to go viral, only to change the content of a message after it’s been retweeted, according to Bloomberg. 

Twitter says that the test has been localized to a single country, and will be expanded as the company ‘learns and observes’ how people use the feature. “We’ll also be paying close attention to how the feature impacts the way people read, write, and engage with Tweets.”

Former CEO Jack Dorsey said as recently as January 2020 that an edit button was highly unlikely, but it was so widely requested that the company never made a definitive call on whether it would launch something.

That debate snowballed earlier this year when Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk took a large ownership stake in the company, then polled his followers on whether they wanted an edit button. The majority of those who voted said yes. -Bloomberg

The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully. https://t.co/UDJIvznALB

— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022

Following the April poll, Twitter confirmed that it had been testing the feature internally, and that it had started work on it before Musk’s poll. 

And some hot takes:

edit your censorship policy

— Abby Libby stands with Libs of Tiktok (@abbythelibb_) September 1, 2022

The way screenshotting tweets, RTs, and Liked tweets work on this app, someone will definitely be losing their job because of this feature.

— Katelyn Burns (@transscribe) September 1, 2022

pic.twitter.com/dTUUMxryfi

— HappyToast ★ (@IamHappyToast) September 1, 2022