Yes, that’s right, Twitter are finally getting an edit button! It’s been years and years of begging, tears and blackmail to get to this point. Ok, we’re totally kidding on the blackmail front (we hope). But, finally they gave in and are giving the people what they want.
Twitter are finally giving in and making an edit button accessible across the platform. However, like with all great things, there is of course a catch. Users will be able to edit their tweets for up to 30 minutes after posting it. During this time, they’ll only be able to make changes 5 times. Which, isn’t too bad really because if you’ve made mistakes that can’t be rectified after this many attempt, then it might be a good idea to just delete the tweet and try again, right?
Only allowing 30 minutes may seem like a tight deadline, but it does stop people being able to change what they’ve said years later. As we know, many tweets people have put out onto the platform have later come back to bite them. So, this way Twitter can allow people to be held responsible for things they have once said. You should never put anything online you wouldn’t want a potential business partner, employer or friend to discover.
It also means incorrect information can be monitored closer because people aren’t able to change what they have said after this cut off period. The changes really are aimed towards typos or innocent errors. Which, is what Twitter users have been asking for. After all, we’re all guilty of a spelling mistake here and there, or even getting a word completely wrong. Writing this article I’m pretty lucky because I can have my spellings checked. But, do you often proof read a tweet? I can’t say I do…
Currently, Twitter are assessing the behaviour of those on the platform. So, in time, the amount of edits you can make to a tweet could change. Maybe they’ll extend the timeframe even. But, for now, we should all be thankful for what we can get. It’s certainly been one we’ve all been waiting for. Those accessing the edit tweet button first will be the premium users. Anyone using Twitter Blue will be able to make the first changes. From here, New Zealand users will be the next to get it, and later it will head to Australia, Canada and the US.
Once they’ve ironed out any mistakes and fixed those dreaded bugs, it seems they may expand to other regions. However, we aren’t yet sure how long the wait will be. It seems Twitter want to learn more about users behaviours before they make the feature worldwide. It makes sense in some ways because they can figure out exactly how popular it will be and what people like and dislike before giving it to every account. They’ll give themselves a chance to avoid inevitable backlash this way, well, at least some of it.
