Twitter is working on the edit button but says the idea didn’t come from Elon Musk

Twitter has confirmed that it is working on an edit button, but has denied the idea after a poll was held on Elon Musk, the company’s new largest shareholder.

Over the years, editing a tweet already published is a sought after feature on the site to correct typo or embarrassing mistakes. Nowadays people work around it by deleting and re-posting the tweet.

In a post on Tuesday, Twitter said it has been working on an edit button since 2021 and will be testing the new feature in the coming months with people signing up for the company’s subscription product – Twitter Blue.

Now everyone is asking …

Yes, we’ve been working on an edit feature since last year!

No, we didn’t get the idea from a poll

We’re starting the experiment inside TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t and what is possible.

– Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) April 5, 2022

In a video to go with the announcement, the edit button sits along with other options for tweets, such as “Delete Tweet”, but the company has not yet indicated what an edited tweet would look like on the site. Twitter says it is still building the tool.

Jay Sullivan, the company’s head of product, said it had been the most requested feature for many years but warned that a potential edit button could be misused without proper control.

2 / Edit The most requested Twitter feature for many years. People want to be able to fix wrong (sometimes embarrassing) mistakes, typo and hot text in a moment. They currently work around it by deleting and retweeting.

– J. Sullivan (Jesulivan) April 5, 2022

For example, after a tweet goes viral, the person may change the entire content of the tweet. “Editing can be an abuse to change the record of a public conversation, without things like timing, control and transparency about what has been edited,” Sullivan said.

“As we approach this task, maintaining the integrity of that public conversation is our highest priority.”

He said Twitter would take the time to feature and ask for input before launching it.

“We will approach this feature with care and consideration and we will share updates on the go.”

On Tuesday, Twitter announced that Musk would join the company’s board, one day after the world’s richest man became its largest shareholder, acquiring a 9.2% stake at 9 2.9 billion.

Musk’s partnership with the company sparked speculation that he would make any changes to the platform, partly fueled by a billionaire’s Twitter poll for an edit button.

Twitter chief executive Parag Agarwal called on users to “vote carefully”. The company first posted that it was working on an edit button on April 1, initially claiming it was an April Fool’s Day joke.

Although technology companies often have a history of featuring April Fools’ Day jokes. Gmail, for example, was first suggested by Google on April 1, 2004.