The No. 1 request by Twitter users for a new feature could finally be coming soon.
Twitter announced on April 5 that they have been working on an edit button for the last year and plan to begin testing it out Twitter Blue, the social media company's monthly subscription program for exclusive features.
"Now that everyone is asking… yes, we’ve been working on an edit feature since last year! no, we didn’t get the idea from a poll we're kicking off testing within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t, and what’s possible," Twitter's Communications team tweeted.
Users have been longing for an edit button for years, while other social media platforms like Facebook and Reddit allow users to edit a post after it's been published.
Common typos like the incorrect use of "they're," "their," and "there," would finally be allowed to be adjusted, and people can stop correcting others in the replies.
Twitter Comms even joked in their post that a "poll" had nothing to do with their announcement -- in reference to Elon Musk's post asking if the platform should have an edit button. Musk asked the question on April 4, the same day he announced his 9.2% stake in the company, and continued his trolling by incorrectly spelling the answer options.
4.4 million people voted in the poll, with 73.6% of the voted saying "yse" and the other 26.4% of people voted "on." Additionally, over 344,000 people liked the tweet and another 56,000 retweeted the poll.
Jay Sullivan, head of consumer product at Twitter, quote tweeted the Twitter Comms post and shed some more light on the potential edit button.
"We've been exploring how to build an Edit feature in a safe manner since last year and plan to begin testing it within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months. Sharing a few more insights on how we’re thinking about Edit," Sullivan tweeted.
"2/ Edit has been the most requested Twitter feature for many years. People want to be able to fix (sometimes embarrassing) mistakes, typos and hot takes in the moment. They currently work around this by deleting and tweeting again," Sullivan added.
Typos on Twitter are very common, and like Sullivan noted, people often end up deleting their tweet if there's a glaring typo and repost it with everything spelt properly. Others pretend not to care about their mistake and sometimes just reply to it with the correct spelling of the word they messed up.
Sullivan continued his thread by making a point that the edit button "could be misused to alter the record of public conversation."
"3/ Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation. Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work," Sullivan tweeted.
He finished the thread by saying that the company wants to "help people be more comfortable on Twitter."
"5/ This is just one feature we are exploring as we work to give people more choice and control over their Twitter experience, foster a healthy conversation, and help people be more comfortable on Twitter. These are the things that motivate us every day," Sullivan tweeted.
With the recent news that Musk has offered to purchase Twitter for $43 billion, perhaps that could change the company's launch of an edit button and make it come sooner than later.
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