Anyone who’s ever tweeted what they thought was the perfect joke, remark, or been confronted with a trending meme only to realize it had a typo in their text knows how important an edit button would be. For years users and even celebrities like Kim Kardashian has asked on Twitter to give us an edit button, and it looks like the social media giant has finally listened. Now that the feature is rolling out, you may be wondering how to use Twitter’s new edit button. Here is the truth.
In April, Twitter announced that they were testing an edit button, but it was only available to some Twitter Blue subscribers. If you’re not familiar, Twitter Blue is the app’s paid monthly subscription service that gives users access to premium features like the new edit button. Unfortunately for anyone currently on a budget or already paying for too many subscription services, you’ll have to decide if it’s worth ditching $5 a month, because it’s currently only available to Twitter Blue users. Like Twitter, TikTok has been late in letting users edit their posts, but Instagram and Facebook have been offering the feature for years, and for free. As of now, not only do Twitter users need to spend a little money to be able to change the “you are” to “your,” but there’s also a second pitfall you’ll want to be aware of.
How does the Edit button on Twitter work?
One of the main complaints about being able to have an edit button is that users spreading false information or bots can simply abuse the feature. While a free-for-all program would be nice for anyone just trying to tweet pictures of their cat goofing around or reviews of TV shows they’re watching, the company has had to put some restrictions on your new edit button. For example, you’ll only have 30 minutes to edit your tweet once it’s posted. However, she will be able to edit her tweet “a few times” in that period. Twitter’s reason for having a short time to edit is “to help protect the integrity of the conversation.”
Along with the 30-minute time limit, all edited tweets will also have “an icon, timestamp, and label” added to indicate that the tweet you see has been edited. Just like on Facebook, you’ll be able to access the edit history of an edited Tweet to see previous versions. This means that if you were hoping no one would know that you misspelled a celebrity’s name or typed the wrong lyrics to a Taylor Swift song, they’ll still be able to see your mistake with the click of a button. Edit history definitely makes sense for “creating a publicly accessible record of what was said,” but it doesn’t do much to protect your ego. Unless you have a viral tweet, which goes viral in less than 30 minutes, with a typo, your best bet is to delete it and start over.
Who can edit tweets?
While the trial of the edit button on Twitter was only available to some Twitter Blue users, the feature will now be available to all subscribers later in September, but only for one country. Twitter didn’t reveal which country it will be, but the site did confirm that all Twitter Blue subscribers in a specific country will get the edit button by the end of the month as testing continues.
Twitter says the reason for only allowing the feature to a small group is to be able to receive “feedback while identifying and resolving potential issues.” This will also help prevent someone from misusing the edit button. The company hopes to expand the edit button once they better understand how people use it. Hopefully, that means it could even expand to non-Twitter Blue users one day. As Dionne Warwick once tweeted, an edit button “it would be good.”
