Twitter posts the first ever edited tweet

The feature will come to Twitter Blue subscribers first when it rolls out globally

(AFP via Getty Images)

Twitter has posted its first edited tweet, showing how the posts will look when the feature is rolled out.

The social media company sent the tweet yesterday, with a “Last Edited” time and date at the bottom of the post.

Users can click that link and view the entire edited history of the tweet.

Once the edit button goes live, it’ll first become available to Twitter Blue users, the company’s $4.99 premium platform that provides access to the latest features such as the ability to undo tweets, ad-free articles, bookmark folders, and more.

Twitter’s edit button has had a tumultuous history. The company announced the button was being launched in September this year, saying that tweets will be able to be edited “a few times” in a 30-minute window immediately after they are published, and edited tweets will appear with an icon, timestamp and label to make it clear the original post has been modified.

The label, Twitter said, is necessary because post history helps “protect the integrity of the conversation and create a publicly accessible record of what was said”.

Twitter has said it is the company’s most requested feature, but Lewis Wiltshire, the former head of sport at Twitter, said introducing an edit button would be a “mistake” because of Twitter’s influence.

“It’s one of those things that people call for when they want to sound like they understand tech products but don’t really,” he posted on the platform in response to the news.

“An edit button would be welcomed by a small percentage of hardcore users, weaponised by a larger and more dangerous group of bad people, and largely ignored by the majority of people in between.

Elon Musk, who is attempting to back out of buying Twitter after making an offer for it, drew attention to the feature by posting a poll in April 2022.

“Do you want an edit button?” he wrote on Twitter, asking people to vote yes or no.

Reacting to the poll, Twitter’s chief executive officer Parag Agarwal cautioned users to “vote carefully” and that “the consequences of this poll [would] be important. Please vote carefully.”

However, The Independent understands that, even at the time of those tweets, Twitter had been working on the edit button for months prior.