It’s time to fix those spelling mistakes because, finally, Twitter is working on an edit button—a feature that we’ve all been waiting for so many years!
After teasing about an edit button on April Fool’s Day, the official account of Twitter Comms clarified that it wasn’t an April Fools’ joke and confirmed that they’ve been working on the long-awaited feature since last year. They wrote: “Now that everyone is asking… Yes, we’ve been working on an edit feature since last year!”
https://twitter.com/TwitterComms/status/1511456430024364037?t=eqfCkEKVY3t85nh3s5mBlA&s=19
The social media platform’s communication team also clarified that the idea of the said feature didn’t come from Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweet, where Musk—who recently became Twitter’s largest shareholder—posted a poll on April 5 (Philippine time), asking if Twitter users wanted an edit button. The poll garnered over four million votes, with 74% of them voting “yes.”
Twitter also mentioned that they will soon be testing the feature within Twitter Blue, Twitter’s first-ever subscription service that was launched in 2021. “We’re kicking off testing within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t, and what’s possible.”
https://twitter.com/TwitterComms/status/1511456466233815041?t=Oh7BfrxF646QI8aXr4R0pw&s=19
The announcement of the app’s upcoming feature received mixed reactions and opinions from its users. While many celebrated the idea of having an edit button soon, some expressed disapproval and concerns, pointing out that the feature may cause chaos as users will have the opportunity to alter their tweets, thereby changing their context.
Nobody asked for edit button. Twitter’s originality is why we love it. Just bring back the damn fleets.
— LERRY (@_AsiwajuLerry) April 1, 2022
Twitter doesn't need an edit button cos if this feature is added, it will cause complete chaos which in turn will ruin the platform; Twitter thrives on raw tweets, editing a tweet will affect the quoted retweets, replies & shared articles contextually. An edit button is a no-no.
— Daniel Regha (@DanielRegha) April 1, 2022
Twitter edit button will kill likes. I’m not liking anything if y’all can change it after the fact…
— Sal the Agorist (@SallyMayweather) April 5, 2022
A lot of the folks who advocate for Twitter having an edit button justify their argument by saying "Facebook has an edit button". The point is not that it's some unsolvable technical challenge (though it is harder than it seems) — it's that it's a bad idea in this context.
— anildash.com (@anildash) April 5, 2022
Unpopular opinion: @Twitter shouldn't have an edit button. So many implications on responsibility, accountability.. if edits need to be made, there is always the delete button and/or erratum posts.
— Bianca Gonzalez (@iamsuperbianca) April 6, 2022
If Twitter adds an edit button it will doom their platform. Only tweets with typos in them blow up everyone knows this.
— Lyle Rath (@LyleRath) April 5, 2022
On the other hand, many users also suggested ways to properly implement the feature, such as setting a limited time for when they can only edit their tweet and adding an edit history, where one can view the original tweet.
twitter should have an edit button but it should appear, at random, on other people's posts. each user gets the chance once per day to edit a random post.
no one would be immune. The CDC, Elon Musk, your grandmother- all on the giant edit roulette wheel
— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) April 6, 2022
It will be great if correctly implemented
1- edited tweets should have a link to the unedited original & all their edits
2- likes & retweets for the original one should stay with that tweet, instead displaying the newly edited tweet
Being able to correct a typ0 w/o disinformation— KQubato (@miguelinoso) April 5, 2022
https://twitter.com/Green_Footballs/status/1511472223051300864?t=x002LHv5lF420y8J6Yb3iQ&s=19
In a separate tweet thread, the head of Twitter’s consumer product Jay Sullivan addressed these issues and concerns, saying that they will continue to seek input before launching the edit feature and approach it with “care and thoughtfulness.”
4/ Therefore, it will take time and we will be actively seeking input and adversarial thinking in advance of launching Edit. We will approach this feature with care and thoughtfulness and we will share updates as we go.
— Jay Sullivan (@jaysullivan) April 5, 2022
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