Twitter: How to (Finally) Edit Your Tweets

Twitter is testing the edit feature with Twitter Blue followers. Here’s everything you need to know.

Ever since Twitter has existed, you’ve probably read tweets that would benefit from a second chance. Twitter users have almost always asked the company to implement an editing feature, but the platform rarely makes big changes to its service — other than moving to a 280-character limit and choosing which users can reply to your tweets. In any case, despite continued strong demand, Twitter has never backed down until today. After 15 years of good and faithful service, the Edit button is finally a reality.

Twitter released the information in a simple tweet on September 1, 2022, like it was nothing. “Ah is this? Oh, it’s just a normal day at good old Twitter headquarters. If Twitter ever discovered something very important, like life on Mars or a cure for cancer, the information would surely be announced in the same way.

Either way, the Edit button is on the way. Soon, Twitter users everywhere will be able to tweet, see if they made a mistake, and fix it without deleting the original tweet.

The Edit button is only available to Twitter Blue subscribers (for now)

Twitter is still testing this feature. In other words, it’s not quite ready for public deployment. To test this, Twitter chose two targets: Twitter employees themselves and Twitter Blue followers.

From the beginning of September, those who pay the required $4.99 to take advantage of the advanced features can use the Edit button. Others will have to wait some more time before they can do so.

How tweet editing works

When you get access to this Edit button, whether it’s through a Twitter Blue subscription or because the feature is being made available to the general public, here’s what you can expect.

When you send a tweet, you have 30 minutes to edit it as many times as you want. You can use the “Edit”option to edit a tweet and post it later. Once that 30 minute period has expired, it’s all over. Your tweet can no longer be edited at all. Then your only recourse is the same and the only one that we have always had, namely deletion.

In any case, keep in mind that each edit is saved in a history visible to anyone with access to your tweets. You won’t hide your typos by editing a tweet. Each version of your tweet will also be saved for as long as your tweet exists, and will be displayed via a small special label. If you’ve tweeted something controversial, the Edit button won’t save you. However, to correct a simple typo or to explain an initial idea, this is a very useful addition.