Twitter will never have an edit button for tweets—here’s why
If you ever thought you’d have the ability to edit your tweets, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says it’s never going to happen.
The platform’s users have been asking for an edit button for years and in 2018, it was looking like we were about to get our wish.
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On October 21, 2018, makeup mogul Jeffree Star took to his profile to ask for the button.
“Dear Twitter, we need an edit button on our tweets,” Star writes. “Sincerely, everyone.”
Surprisingly, Twitter replied with “Dear everyone, Noted.”
Dear everyone,
Noted.
?, Twitter.
— Twitter (@Twitter) October 22, 2018
Last year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey joined Joe Rogan’s podcast to further taunt users about the possible ability for them to edit tweets.
“You could build it as such so maybe we introduce a 5-second to 30-second delay in the sending,” Dorsey said. “And within that window, you can edit. This issue with going longer than that is it takes the real-time nature of the conversational flow out of it.”
He also added that they’re looking into a function that allows people to edit but also see the original tweet. However, Dorsey still seemed doubtful that the edit feature would be coming anytime soon.
“When you send a text, you can’t take it back. So when you send a tweet, it goes to the world instantaneously. You can’t take it back,” Dorsey said.
Now, the CEO is saying that the feature will never exist. It is sad news, but at least we have our closure.
In a segment with Wired, when asked why we have a limited number of characters, Dorsey reminds us that the platform was originally designed as an SMS platform.
“We originally started with 140 characters so that we could fit in one text message,” he says. “Which is what the whole service was based on in the early days.”
If you used Twitter when it first hatched, you’ll remember that you could tweet by texting the number 40404.
SOME OF YALL NEVER HAD TO TWEET BY TEXTING 40404 AND IT SHOWS
— DANNY FANDOM (@awsten) February 10, 2019
When asked if the platform will ever have an edit feature, Dorsey has a very straightforward response.
“The answer is no.”
In the video, Dorsey says it’s because they want to preserve the energy of how the platform originally started. He also reminds users again that once you send a text message, that’s it.
“The reason there’s no edit button- there hasn’t been an edit button traditionally- is we started as an SMS text messaging service,” he states. “As you all know, when you send a text, you can’t really take it back.”
He goes on to list some reasons as to why people are asking for the function, but still says they’ll probably never add it.
Check out the full video below.
What are your thoughts about Twitter not getting an edit feature? Sound off in the comments below!
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