Twitter confirmed it is working on an edit button and will begin testing it with select users in the coming months.
This was announced last night by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, now Twitter’s largest shareholder, who made headlines for adding an edit button to his followers’ votes.
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
As expected, the results overwhelmingly favor the edit button.
Musk was recently appointed to Twitter’s board of directors after buying 9.2% of Twitter’s stock last Monday.
His position may allow him to influence the addition of new features. However, Twitter revealed that an edit button is already in use.
While Twitter acknowledged the poll, which had more than 4 million votes, it said it had been developing an editing feature since last year.
Now everyone is asking…
Yes, we’ve been developing editing features since last year!
No, we didn’t get the idea from the polls 😉
we are starting to test @TwitterBlue Do labs over the next few months to learn what works, what doesn’t, and what’s possible.
— Twitter Communications (@TwitterComms) April 5, 2022
Twitter will first test the edit button with its Twitter Blue premium subscribers before rolling it out to everyone.
As a testing ground for new features, Twitter Blue Labs allows companies to experiment while providing additional value to their premium members.
Testing Twitter can determine how to implement the edit button in a way that minimizes negative impact on the user experience.
There are many variables to consider, such as:
- How long does it take a user to edit a tweet?
- How many times can a tweet be edited?
- How do other users know when a tweet has been edited?
Arguments can be made against allowing users to edit historical tweets from past years. Although a five-minute window where newly posted tweets can be edited might be more reasonable.
This will all be determined during the beta, which Twitter says will begin in the next few months.
