For many years users of the social media platform Twitter have asked for one thing, an edit button. Finally, the company is giving in to the pressure, and will trial the new feature in the coming weeks.
“If you see an edited Tweet, it’s because we’re testing the edit button. This is happening and you’ll be OK,” the company tweeted.
In the next few weeks users signed up to Twitter Blue, the subscription option for the social media platform which costs $4.99 per month, will be able to edit their tweets a few times in a 30-minute window after they’re posted.
Edited tweets will feature an icon, which when clicked on will show the history of edits made to the tweet.
“Tweeting will feel more approachable and less stressful,” Twitter said. “You should be able to participate in the conversation in a way that makes sense to you and we’ll keep working on ways that make it feel effortless to do just that.”
In the past Twitter has argued that mistakes and typos should be left on display, and warned that users could change a tweet after it had been shared around the world, introducing a more misleading message. In 2022 Twitter launched Fleets, a feature that saw posts deleted after 24 hours. But it was shut down not long after.
This week the company has also launched Circles, which lets people post updates to a smaller group of 150 followers.
Twitter will hope the new feature will make users more confident in engaging with the platform. The move is expected to go down well among users. A recent poll posted by Elon Musk, who at that time was planning to buy the company, showed 73.6% of the 4.4 million accounts which responded were in favor of an edit button.