Twitter recently announced that it is working on an “edit” button, which users have been requesting for years. While the company did not reveal when it plans to release it, the feature was spotted by Jane Manchun Wong. The source suggests that the edit button will be implemented in a way that will keep your edit history visible.
According to reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, editing a tweet using Twitter’s upcoming edit button could leave a digital trail of your tweet history. In a tweet, Manchun Wong explains that the edit feature appears to have an “immutable” quality, meaning that Twitter can create an entirely new tweet when edited, while preserving previous versions of that tweet.
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"It appears that Twitter's approach to Edit Tweet is unchanged, as instead of mutating the Tweet text in the same Tweet (same ID), it recreates a new Tweet with the modified content, along with the list of old Tweets before this edit," says Manchun Wong.
As Manchun Wong notes, it's unclear how a tweet's edit history will be displayed to users, or if it will be displayed at all. But if Twitter decides to make tweet history public, it could be a way to address concerns about potential abuse of the feature, as some critics believe it could be used to alter the public record and mislead users.
App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi posted what appear to be screenshots of the new feature on Twitter, giving us a look at what the edit button might actually look like when it goes live on Twitter. In one screenshot, Paluzzi shows how the “Edit Tweet” option might appear in the three-dot menu on the right side of your tweets.
Selecting the button takes you to a screen that looks a lot like the regular tweet composer, except it’s pre-filled with your tweet text and says “Update” in the bottom right corner instead of “Tweet.” However, Paluzzi’s screenshots don’t show an option to view a tweet’s edit history.
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Twitter has not yet confirmed the presence of a tweet history tracker. “There is nothing more to share at this time beyond what is in this Tweet from @TwitterComms and this Tweet from @JaySullivan, VP of Consumer Product,” Twitter spokesperson Anna Hubatsch said in a statement emailed to The Verge.
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Twitter first announced that it was working on the much-anticipated edit button earlier this month, after seemingly joking about the feature on April Fools' Day. However, shortly before Twitter's official confirmation, Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked his followers about an edit button after revealing his purchase of a 9.2% stake in Twitter. Musk then made a bid to acquire the entire company , and it's currently unknown what the board will decide.
Source of information: theverge.com
