Twitter's Dorsey Speaks On Future Tweet Editing
As we find ourselves in the final days of 2016, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is looking to what his team can do in 2017 to improve the platform. Dorsey went straight to the source yesterday, asking Twitter users what changes they'd like Twitter to make in the new year. He got a ton of replies, with users requesting everything from better security to a stronger and more transparent approach to combating abuse.
What was the most requested feature of the day? The ability to edit tweets. In a follow-up tweet, Dorsey added that tweet editing has been the most requested Twitter feature of all time. He also told numerous users that the team at Twitter was considering editing and how to implement it.
One of the biggest questions is whether Twitter allows users to edit tweets with no restrictions on when that can happen or if editing is only available for a brief period of time after the tweet is posted. As it stands, the only way to correct typos or other mistakes is to delete the offending tweet and create a new one. Editing would solve this problem, but as Dorsey said in one thread, Twitter is often used as the public record, something that complicates the roll out of an editing feature.
Giving users something like a five minute window to edit a tweet would help prevent editing abuse, but so would implementing a change log. Facebook does this within it's own editing feature – though you're free to edit a Facebook post at any time, other users can pull up an edit history to see what your post used to say. Dorsey brings up the possibility of a change log in his own replies to users, so it sounds like editing would be accompanied by such a feature if it ever becomes a reality.
Regardless of how it arrives, editing could very well be added as a Twitter feature in 2017. Time will ultimately tell, but it's going to be hard for Twitter to ignore editing when it's been the most requested feature throughout the platform's life. Click the source link below to see the full Twitter thread and all of the suggestions users have for 2017.
SOURCE: Jack Dorsey