Twitter is testing an 'undo' option after sending tweets

Twitter is working on a feature that could offer users a short window of time to rethink posting a tweet even after they hit send.

The company confirmed to CNN Business on Friday it is testing an undo option that would potentially let users retract or correct a tweet before it's officially posted on the platform.

The feature was discovered by Jane Manchun Wong, an app developer who has a strong track record of uncovering new tools on social networks before they're released. Wong posted a GIF on Twitter that shows a blue "undo" bar appearing beneath the words "Your Tweet was sent." (It's possible the feature could change before it formally rolls out -- if it ever does.)

It's not quite the edit button users have long requested, but it's a step toward helping users proactively catch errors and slow down before sending impulse tweets.
The feature is reminiscent of Gmail's existing recall tool, which allows users up to 30 seconds to retract sending an email.

Last year, Twitter (TWTR) told investors it was mulling a subscription service and was evaluating exclusive options for paying users, including an "undo send" feature. At the time, the company said it asked users in a survey to evaluate which options were most or least important to them.

"Over the course of this year, you'll see us test subscription products in public," the company's investor relations' Twitter account teased earlier this week. "You'll hear more about them. And hopefully, you'll see some of these products roll out as well."

Last month, Twitter said it is exploring other subscription opportunities, such as a way for users to become paid subscribers to Twitter accounts they like to receive additional content such as exclusive announcements and newsletters. The company has also set an ambitious goal to double its annual revenue by the end of 2023.

Twitter is testing an 'undo' option after sending tweets

Twitter is working on a feature that could offer users a short window of time to rethink posting a tweet even after they hit send.

edition.cnn.com

 

[Furret]

Just add an edit button you lazy fucks. It's not hard and it has no downsides.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

Just add an edit button you lazy fucks. It's not hard and it has no downsides.

Eh, I'm with you ONLY if the edit has a timer in it, like you only get a few hours or so max to edit it. This prevents hijacking and backpedaling when tweets go viral and they want to renege on something or to add additional shit like when Reddit fags do the "Whoa, my first Reddit Gold!" routine. Plus allowing anyone to edit their tweets at any time will also cause a lot of memory-holing in our forever gaslighting society.

There's been times when I tweeted stuff and accidentally confused they're/their/there and looked like an idiot because I couldn't edit it, so I'd support an edit feature if it only allowed that short window of time to fix it immediately after sending.

 

[Meat Target]

"Help me, Jack, my hot take is getting ratio'd!"

 

[Darksy DePhil]

This actually looks worse than just being able to delete and correct your tweet without a time limit

 

[StalinMan53]

Too little too late and, in this situation, better never than late.

 

[Haramburger]

Eh, I'm with you ONLY if the edit has a timer in it, like you only get a few hours or so max to edit it. This prevents hijacking and backpedaling when tweets go viral and they want to renege on something or to add additional shit like when Reddit fags do the "Whoa, my first Reddit Gold!" routine. Plus allowing anyone to edit their tweets at any time will also cause a lot of memory-holing in our forever gaslighting society.

I like how it works here, you don't see an "edited on:" footnote in posts within the first 5 minutes or so, and I regularly tweak posts immediately after clicking Post Reply. Profile comments and private discussions are a little more permanent, after 5 min they lock.

 

[Lone MacReady]

Holding cunts to account may be a bit harder if they can undo the evidence.

 

[Eternal Gopnik]

I really like how they're "working on" a feature that's a single popup with a timeout and a single button that hides the latest tweet on the profile and marks it as deleted. I'm sure there are dozens of people involved in designing this extremely cutting edge functionality and it'll be ready for production sometime in 2025.

 

[Haramburger]

I really like how they're "working on" a feature that's a single popup with a timeout and a single button that hides the latest tweet on the profile and marks it as deleted. I'm sure there are dozens of people involved in designing this extremely cutting edge functionality and it'll be ready for production sometime in 2025.

Corporate bloat is pretty impressive when you deconstruct it like this.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

As if Twatter needed to become more of a memory-holing. revisionist, propagandist hellhole than it already is. The death of that hateful blue bird can't come soon enough.

 

[tehpope]

Holding cunts to account may be a bit harder if they can undo the evidence.

Archive sites still exists.

 

[Crunchy Oats]

Eh, I'm with you ONLY if the edit has a timer in it, like you only get a few hours or so max to edit it

Isn't that what they're doing with the undo button?

 

[X Pac Heat]

Just delete it retards

 

[Irrelevant]

It'll probably be like Gmail where you only have like 5-10s to undo if you sent by accident.

 

[HarveyMCR]

Just add an edit button you lazy fucks. It's not hard and it has no downsides.

Anything that give Twitter users more freedoms is a downside. You'll start seeing viral tweets having the ads edited directly into them

 

[Neil]

All this bullshit really could be solved with an edit button + revision history.

 

[Pixy]

Why not just have an 'are you sure?' box appear with a 15 second timer, after which users can confirm they want to tweet.

That would be much better at provoking thought rather than an edit or undo button. Basically 'think before you speak'.

News orgs and journos could apply for exemptions from such a function, given how they use Twitter for their work. Press conferences, speeches, announcements etc. are normally accompanied by a flurry of tweets from them, so that would disrupt the way they use it.

 

[Dick Justice]

Basically 'think before you speak'.

Are you daft? Prudence is exactly the opposite of what Twitter wants from its userbase. Prudent people didn't make them profitable.

 

[X Pac Heat]

Seriously, what is so fucking hard about just hitting "delete" and doing it over?

It's...what? Like 300 characters max now? It's not like you're having to re-do a fucking novel. How much of a retard does one have to be that redoing THAT is an inconvenience? Especially when you can just copy and paste it to fix it BEFORE you delete it?