Twitter Blue should get a subscriber boost thanks to Twitter’s long-awaited edit feature

The news: Twitter is finally testing an edit button—something that’s been at the top of user requests for years.

• The social media business revealed on Thursday that it was testing the ability to alter a tweet right after it was published.
• Later this month, the functionality will become available to subscribers of Twitter Blue, the company’s premium service.

How it works: When a tweet is changed, Twitter will add on a label that users can click to view the tweet's revision history.

• There is a 30-minute time limit for editing tweets.
• Users will be able to see an icon to indicate changes.

The criticism: Some users expressed concern online that the edit option may be used to propagate false information or to change a tweet that has already been widely shared into a different message.

• You’ll undoubtedly see stories like that as the edit function rolls out in a larger way—but such concerns could be overblown.

Will it work? Generally speaking, giving users features they want is a good idea.

• But the edit button illustrates how slow Twitter can be to innovate at a time when it’s falling behind the competition. Case in point: This week, Twitter launched podcasts within its Spaces tab—something the platform had been working on for at least six months.
• Twitter is initially giving edit functionality to Blue in an attempt to expand that paid service and diversify its revenues, critically important given the platform’s stagnant ad revenue growth.

The big takeaway: Given Twitter Blue’s slow start, releasing edit capability to premium subscribers first can only help that offering grow.