Twitter Launches First Stage of the Live Roll Out of Tweet Editing

It’s taking place.

After years of requests, through thousands and thousands of tweets, Twitter has finally launched the first stage of the roll-out of its new tweet modifying characteristic, with Twitter Blue subscribers in Canada, Australia and New Zealand now in a position to revise their tweeted content material for half-hour after posting.

As you may see on this sequence, the course of is pretty easy. Now, after you’ve posted your tweet, you’ll see a notification informing you that you would be able to make adjustments inside the subsequent half hour. Customers could make as much as 5 edits to the unique tweet inside that interval.

To edit a tweet, you’ll faucet on the three dots menu at the prime proper of the tweet. You’ll then choose ‘Edit Tweet’ and make the required adjustments.

Edited tweets will then see a brand new ‘Edited’ icon added to them in-stream, so that every one customers know that the unique tweet has been modified.

Customers may even be capable of view the full edit historical past by tapping on the ‘Final edited’ indicator in the tweet element display (i.e. the expanded tweet show that you would be able to entry by tapping on a tweet).

It’s the first dwell launch of the characteristic to the public, after Twitter introduced that it was constructing a tweet modifying choice back in April. That got here after Elon Musk successfully let the cat out of the bag by utilizing his new standing as Twitter’s top shareholder to brag about how he might make tweet modifying a actuality. His public statements then pressured Twitter to verify that it had been engaged on an Edit button for a while.

On reflection, it was the first signal of what the relationship between Musk and Twitter would turn out to be.

Twitter had lengthy resisted including an edit choice because of the transient nature of tweets, which led to issues that even the slightest of adjustments might considerably alter the context of the unique message. That, in flip, might trigger issues for tweets that folks had retweeted, or tweet embeds on different websites.

The reply to the first component is the full edit historical past, which permits all customers to glean context as to why it was initially shared – so when a star inevitably re-tweets one thing that’s been edited into an offensive remark, they will now confer with the historical past to elucidate themselves.

On the second concern, Twitter’s additionally engaged on new notes to add to embedded tweets which can present extra context as to its edit historical past.

So that you’ll theoretically be capable of embed the unique tweet in perpetuity, however readers can have the choice to faucet by means of to seek out out what the newest edits to that remark could also be.

With the launch of public tweet modifying, Twitter has additionally confirmed that tweet metadata is being made obtainable on the Twitter API, offering builders with entry to tweet modifying and replace historical past data.

Total, it looks as if answer – which it most likely ought to, on condition that Twitter has been engaged on it for the higher half of a yr (or extra). It additionally feels, and has felt like, Twitter’s issues round tweet misinterpretation because of modifying have been overblown, not as a result of folks received’t edit their retweeted tweets, however as a result of it’s unlikely to turn out to be a serious subject.

I imply, most different platforms have provided modifying and embedding choices for years, and it’s been high-quality. Tweets are shorter, however the probability of this changing into a widespread drawback don’t appear to be rather a lot greater on this respect.

Both method, Twitter’s options appear to handle the core issues, and it’ll be fascinating to see how Twitter Blue subscribers use the choice, and whether or not we see much more edit icons showing in tweet streams.

It’ll even be fascinating to see if extra folks find yourself signing up for Twitter Blue in consequence.  Twitter upped the price of its subscription service back in July, seemingly in anticipation of its edit choice being made obtainable, with the much-requested characteristic doubtlessly performing as a much bigger lure to get extra folks paying to tweet.

I think that’ll occur, as folks get enthusiastic about the choice – although whether or not they then stay on board as everlasting Blue members is one other query totally.

However possibly, if Twitter can get them to sign-up, that’ll be one other necessary step to assist maximize its direct monetization course of.