While several people spotted the in-development ‘Edit Tweet’ menu option last month, we didn’t yet know how edited tweets would appear to users viewing them on Twitter. Nor did we understand how the original text of an edited tweet could be read. Now, we’re able to see what Twitter is building to highlight that tweets have had edits made to them.
Revealing How Edited Tweets Will Appear
According to reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, the Edit Tweet button will allow users to create a new tweet with different content. However, to ensure that Twitter users know the tweet has been changed from the original, a label (alongside an icon of a small pen or pencil) will appear at the bottom of the tweet. The label’s text will simply say ‘Edited.’ If you click on the word ‘Edited,’ you’ll be taken to the tweet’s edit history.
A Glimpse into Twitter’s User Interface
Wong notes that currently, users will have 30 minutes to make tweet edits. This is slightly longer than needed to quickly correct a spotted typo – something that Twitter’s subscription service, Twitter Blue, already allows for. However, it’s long enough to clarify or reword a tweet that could be beginning to blow up and go viral for the wrong reasons.
The Edit Tweet Feature: A New Tweet ID
Wong had earlier discovered code references related to the work-in-progress Edit Tweet feature in the recent build of the Twitter web app. This indicated that the Edit button wasn’t actually correcting or changing the text in the original tweet – it was creating a new tweet with the updated content.
Highlighting Old and New Tweets
Her latest findings give us a better idea of how Twitter is addressing this critical context in its user interface. Because the new, edited tweet and old tweet are actually different entities, they will be highlighted as such on the platform. This way, users can easily distinguish between the original tweet and the updated version.
When Can We Expect the Edit Button to Go Live?
Twitter first announced that it was working on an edit button for real last month. The company has not said when the feature would go live to the public, but said Twitter Blue subscribers could expect to be able to try out the feature ‘in the coming months.’
The Impact of the Edit Button
While some users may see this as a welcome addition to the platform, others may view it as a threat to the integrity of tweets. The edit button has been a long-time user request and one that incoming Twitter owner Elon Musk has also been pushing for.
Topics
- Caching
- Computing
- Elon Musk
- Engineer
- Jane Manchun Wong
- Media & Entertainment
- Real Time Web
- Social media
- Software
- Text messaging
- Tweet
- Tweetdeck
- Web app
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