One of the most heavily requested features for Twitter is an edit button that would let you alter an existing tweet, like to fix a typo. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wants you to know that he hears your requests for the feature.
Speaking at an event in New Delhi, India, the Twitter CEO said that his company has been thinking about making an edit button for awhile, but that they have to figure out the right way to do it. "We can't make something which is distracting or takes anything away from public record," Dorsey explained.
He also shed some light on what Twitter is thinking to do about an edit feature. For example, Twitter is unlikely to allow unlimited editing because then someone could abuse the feature to alter a controversial statement in the future. Dorsey said that Twitter wants to remove something that people consider to be "friction" in the service.
“You have to pay attention to what are the use cases for the edit button. A lot of people want the edit button because they want to quickly fix a mistake they made. Like a misspelling or tweeting the wrong URL," Twitter's CEO added. "That’s a lot more achievable than allowing people to edit any tweet all the way back in time."
It's unclear when or if Twitter will ever actually deploy an edit button for tweets, but at least folks know that the company is looking at it. There are a lot of factors to consider in deciding how to roll out tweet editing, like how long to allow a tweet to be edited and an edit history, and all of that is made more difficult when you consider the size of Twitter. Hopefully Dorsey and Twitter will be able to figure out a smart way to allow editing and make a lot of Twitter users happy.
