Twitter's edit button could soon be available to everyone
The long-requested feature looks set to roll out in full by next week
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Twitter edit button
✏️ The Twitter edit button may soon roll out to all users
😮 It’s currently only available to subscribers of Twitter’s premium membership service, Twitter Blue
🕧 The feature lets you edit tweets up to 30 minutes after sharing them
📜 It’s the latest in a long list of changes Elon Musk is making to the platform
Twitter’s premium edit button may soon be available to everyone, as Elon Musk prepares to roll out one of the first major overhauls of the platform since purchasing it last week.
Although the much-demanded edit feature was introduced last month, it’s currently only available to those who subscribe to Twitter Blue. The premium membership service grants access to exclusive features for $4.99 a month, but is only available in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
According to Bloomberg, Twitter is reportedly planning to expand access to the feature. The edit button will be made available to all users for free, and could even be rolled out as soon as later this week.
Twitter has previously emphasized the feature is still being tested and was originally given to Twitter Blue subscribers to iron out bugs and incorporate user feedback. Musk, however, appears to think it’s ready to be released to the wider Twitter user base.
How does Twitter’s edit button work?
At the moment, users can only edit a tweet up to 30 minutes after sending it. Once the tweet’s live, they can tap the three dots icon in the corner, hit the “Edit Tweet” option, and change the contents of the message. It’s particularly useful for correcting typos or minor grammatical errors, so you don’t look silly online.
The 30-minute editing window might seem narrow but it’s essential in combating malicious uses of the feature. Without a cut-off time, users would be able to retroactively change the contents of their tweets after they’d accumulated heaps of likes and retweets, allowing them to ride a wave of virality to promote an entirely different (and possibly hurtful) message than what they’d originally shared.
The half-hour window, the thinking goes, is probably not enough time for a tweet to go viral, protecting users from engaging with a tweet that later becomes toxic.
Edited tweets are marked by a small gray pencil icon in the top right corner. Clicking the symbol will open a history of the tweet’s edits, letting you check exactly what’s been changed.
It’s not unclear whether the functionality of the edit button would change if it’s rolled out to all Twitter users. Specifics, such as how many times a tweet can be edited or how long after a tweet goes live it can be changed, may be altered.
Editing options aren’t the only major change that looks to be coming to Twitter Blue. Verified users will need to subscribe to the $8-a-month service if they want to keep their coveted blue authentication tick, effectively allowing anyone who coughs up enough cash to verify themselves (at least the price has dropped from the $20 monthly fee Musk originally floated). Add to that rumor of forthcoming video paywalls, and Twitter is changing fast.