Finally: Twitter launches its long-awaited edit button

The edit button is according to Twitter coming soon to Twitter Blue subscribers. Users can edit it up to 30 minutes after a tweet is posted.

Tweets edited after posting will have a clickable label, which displays previous versions of the post. Twitter is already testing the edit button among early user groups and will roll out the feature to all Twitter Blue subscribers in the coming weeks.

Twitter Blue, which costs $5 per month, is currently only available in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is not yet known when the subscription will appear in the Netherlands.

Doubting for years

Twitter has been dithering behind the scenes for years about a button to edit tweets afterwards. Already in 2013, founder Jack Dorsey said in 2020 that the feature “will probably never come”, but earlier this year the company already promised that the edit button would really come.

The pledge came after Tesla CEO Elon Musk became a major Twitter shareholder and asked his followers if they wanted an edit button. The majority of voters said “yes”, after which Twitter confirmed the development of the feature.

Take care of

By displaying previous versions of edited tweets, Twitter hopes to allay concerns about the feature being misused. Critics are concerned about a situation where a post with the original link would have new content. A tweet could then become popular for its original content, only to be quietly edited.

Twitter tries to reassure users by announcing the new button: “It’ll be fine.”