Twitter has started testing editable tweets publicly but wants you to pay for it

Editable tweets are something that Twitter users have been clamoring for an eternity. Rumors began emerging back in 2018 that former CEO Jack Dorsey has begun considering the development of this capability, but it wasn't until April 2022 that Twitter officially confirmed that it has begun working on this front.

Prior to that, it seemed like the social media platform would work on literally anything... except editable tweets. Today, Twitter has announced that it has begun the public testing of tweet editing, with some caveats.

But before we get into the details, this is what an edited tweet will look like:

A screenshot showing that a tweet was edited post-publication

As you can see in the screenshot above, there's text at the bottom which indicates that a tweet was updated post-publication, along with the timestamp. Similar to Facebook, if you click on the label, you'll be able to see the edit history, which includes the previous versions of the tweets with the timestamps.

There are some caveats when it comes to editable tweets, though. Twitter has stated that in its current implementation, tweets will only be editable for a “few times” 30 minutes after they have been tweeted. Furthermore, the capability is only being tested internally for now, but will arrive for Twitter Blue users later this month.

Of course, the highlight here is that Twitter Blue is a premium subscription service that costs $4.99/month. The fact that Twitter is charging for a seemingly basic feature might rub some the wrong way, but it is interesting to see that the company's blog post explicitly states that “the test will then be initially expanded to Twitter Blue subscribers in the coming weeks”. Here, “initially” implies that it could be available for everyone down the line, too. The firm has also noted that:

Later this month, we’ll be expanding Edit Tweet access to Twitter Blue subscribers. As part of their subscription, they receive early access to features and help us test them before they come to Twitter. The test will be localized to a single country at first and expand as we learn and observe how people use Edit Tweet. We’ll also be paying close attention to how the feature impacts the way people read, write, and engage with Tweets.

You may start seeing edited tweets on Twitter moving forward, but the feature will be exclusive to Twitter's internal teams for now, followed by Twitter Blue subscribers later this month.