Twitter says it’s testing an ‘edit’ button

Twitter tweeted Tuesday that it is indeed working on a way for users to edit their 280-character messages, although it says the project has nothing to do with the fact that edit-function fan Elon Musk was just revealed as the company's largest shareholder and now sits on its board.

Twitter said it will test the feature in its paid service, Twitter Blue, in the coming months.

It said the test would help it “learn what works, what doesn't, and what's possible.”

So it may be a while before most Twitter users get to use it, if they ever do. Twitter spokesperson Catherine Hill declined to say whether an edit feature might be rolled out for all users.

Many Twitter users — among them, Kim Kardashian, Ice T, Katy Perry and McDonald's corporate account — have long begged for an edit button.

The company itself recently teased users with an April Fool's Day tweet saying “we are working on an edit button.”

The official Twitter account said Tuesday that the April 1 tweet wasn't a joke and that it has been working on it since last year.

Twitter's vice president of consumer product, Jay Sullivan, tweeted Tuesday that an edit function has for years been Twitter's most requested new feature, noting that people want to fix mistakes, typos, and “hot takes.”

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had said that Twitter had considered an edit button, but in a January 2020 Q&A maintained that “we'll probably never do it.” He noted that Twitter's current setup keeps the spirit of its text-message origins — texts can't be edited — and the confusion that could result from users making changes to a tweet that has already been heavily circulated by others. Dorsey stepped down as CEO in November 2021.

People who study Twitter also say adding an edit button would likely change the nature of Twitter, making it less valuable as a historical warehouse that stores official statements by politicians and other high-profile people.

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