Twitter said Thursday it will roll out an editing feature to subscribers of its premium Twitter Blue service later this month.
In an update on its plans to introduce an edit button, the social media company said it has been testing the feature internally, which it said is one of the most requested features to date.
The edit function will give users 30 minutes to make changes to their 280-character messages such as fixing typos or adding hashtags after first publishing a tweet.
To make it clear that a tweet has been modified, they'll be labeled and appear with an icon and timestamp. Users can look up past versions of the tweet by tapping the label.
Twitter said it's testing the edit feature with a small group of users so it can identify and resolve potential issues.
“This includes how people might misuse the feature,” the company said in a blog post. “You can never be too careful.”
The time limit and version history play an important role, Twitter said. “They help protect the integrity of the conversation and create a publicly accessible record of what was said.
Twitter hinted that the edit feature would eventually be rolled out to all users. Testing helps the company understand how it impacts the way people use Twitter “as well as plan for and anticipate what might happen if we bring it to everyone,” spokeswoman Stephanie Cortez said.
Many Twitter users — among them, Kim Kardashian, Ice T, Katy Perry and McDonald’s corporate account — have long pleaded for an edit button.
The company said in April that it has been working on the feature since last year, a day after Tesla CEO Elon Musk polled his followers on whether they wanted an edit button. About three-quarters of the 4.4 million respondents said yes.
Later that month, Musk offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion with the promise that his ownership would bring big changes to the service. He has since attempted to back out of the deal citing concerns about fake accounts and whistleblower allegations of poor cybersecurity, setting the stage for a bruising legal battle over whether he has to go through with the purchase.
The premium service costs $4.99 per month.