The social networking platform is internally testing the ability to make changes to a tweet after it has been published. During the current test, tweets can be edited “a few times” in the 30 minutes following their publication. Tweets that have been edited will appear with a special icon and timestamp to let others know the original tweet has been modified. Clicking the label will take viewers to the tweet’s history, which includes earlier versions of the post.
The idea is to allow users to fix typos, add missed tags and the like. Twitter said keeping tweet history is an important cog as it protects the integrity of the conversation and creates a publicly accessible record of what was said. In the coming weeks, the feature will be expanded to Twitter Blue subscribers – power users that pay for access to exclusive features. Twitter said it is intentionally limiting the size of the test group to help identify and eliminate potential bugs and misuse faster. You can never be too careful, Twitter added. Despite the limited rollout, everyone will be able to see if a tweet has been edited. The company said it is the most requested feature to date and added that it hopes it will make tweeting feel less stressful and more approachable. As The New York Times highlights, the change is arguably the biggest shift for the platform since it doubled tweet character limits from 140 to 280 back in 2017. Image credit: Marten Bjork
