It’s been one of the most highly requested features since Twitter launched back in 2006, but it seems that an ‘Edit Tweet’ button isn’t going to happen - at least any time soon.
In a new Q&A video with Wired, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded to various questions asked on Twitter, including a request for an ‘Edit Tweet’ button.
A user asked Dorsey ‘Ayo @Twitter, can we get that edit button in 2020?’, to which he quickly replied ‘The answer is no.’
According to Dorsey, the reason there’s no Edit button stems back to Twitter’s origins as a text messaging service.
He explained: “We started as an SMS text messaging service. So as you all know, when you send a text, you can’t really take it back. We wanted to preserve that vibe and that feeling from the early days.”
Dorsey also highlighted several issues that would come with an Edit function.
He explained: “You might send a tweet and then someone might retweet that, and an hour later you completely change the contents of that tweet. Then that person that retweeted the original tweet is now retweeting and rebroadcasting something completely different.”
Twitter has considered introducing a time-frame during which users can edit their tweets, according to Dorsey.
He said: “A lot of people want it to fix a quick spelling error, a broken link or whatnot, and that’s great. We’ve considered a one-minute window or 30-second window to correct something.
“But that also means that we have to delay sending that tweet out, because once it’s out, people see it.”
Overall, Dorsey suggests that it’s very likely that Twitter will ever introduce the feature.
He concluded: “We’ve made some practical considerations, but we’ll probably never do it.”
The Q&A comes after Kim Kardashian claimed that Dorsey ‘really heard her out’ on introducing an Edit feature.
She tweeted: “I had a very good convo with @jack this weekend at Kanye’s bday and I think he really heard me out on the edit button.”
Dorsey then jokingly replied: “Now I see why I was invited!”
