It’s happening, it’s finally happening. After years of requests and millions of Tweets later, Twitter has finally launched the first stage of the roll-out of its new Tweet editing feature, with Twitter Blue subscribers in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand now able to revise their Tweeted content for 30 minutes after posting.
It’s A-Live!
The process is fairly straightforward – now, after you’ve posted your Tweet, you’ll see a notification informing you that you can make changes within the next half hour. Users can make up to five edits to the original Tweet within that period. To edit a Tweet, simply tap on the three dots menu at the top right of the Tweet. After, select ‘Edit Tweet’ and make your desired changes.
Edited Tweets will then see a new ‘Edited’ icon added to them in-stream so that all users know that the original Tweet has been changed. Users will also be able to view the full edit history by tapping on the ‘Last Edited’ indicator in the Tweet detail screen. It’s the first live launch of the feature to the public after Twitter announced that it was building the option back in April. That came after Elon Musk effectively set the hounds loose by using his new status as Twitter’s top shareholder to brag about how he could make Tweet editing happen.
In retrospect, it was kind of a foreshadowing of what would eventually become of Musk and Twitter’s relationship. Twitter, for the longest time, had put off adding an edit option due to the brief nature of Tweets, which led to concerns that even the slightest change could significantly alter the context of the original post. In turn, such miscorrelation could cause problems for Tweets others have Retweeted or Tweet embeds on other sites.
The answer to the first element is the full edit history, which enables users to glean context as to what was originally shared and why. The second concern is supposedly addressed by Twitter working to add new notes on Tweet embeds. Providing more context as to its edit history. So, theoretically, users would be able to embed the original Tweet in perpetuity, but readers will have the option to ta through to find out what the latest edits are (if any). The launch of public Tweet editing has also confirmed that Tweet metadata is being made available on the Twitter API, providing developers with access to Tweed editing and update history information.
Overall, it seems like a good solution – which it probably should, given that Twitter has been working on it for the majority of the year. It also feels like Twitter’s concerns around Tweet misinterpretation due to editing have been overblown, not because people won’t edit their Retweeted Tweets, but because it’s unlikely to become a major issue.
The Wrap
Either way, it seems that Twitter’s solution is to address the core concerns, and it’ll be interesting to see how Twitter Blue subscribers use the option, and whether we see a lot more edit icons appearing in Tweet streams. It’ll also be interesting to see if more people end up signing up for Twitter Blue as a result. With Twitter upping Blue’s price back in July, it could be that this would have a lot of people more excited about picking up a subscription, though whether they’ll stay as a permanent Blue member is another question entirely.
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