Twitter confirms it is testing edit button after Elon Musk polls followers

Twitter is testing an edit button, the company said on Tuesday.

The feature has been one of the most requested changes to the social networking service for over a decade. Currently, in order to fix a typo in a tweet, users have to delete it and resend the tweet, which can limit the number of people who see it.

"Edit has been the most requested Twitter feature for many years. People want to be able to fix (sometimes embarrassing) mistakes, typos and hot takes in the moment," tweeted Jay Sullivan, Twitter's vice president of consumer product.

The move also comes the same day as Twitter announced that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will join the company's board of directors. On Monday, after his 9.2% stake in Twitter was revealed through a regulatory filing, Musk tweeted a poll to his followers asking whether Twitter should add an edit button.

That message was retweeted by Parag Agrawal, Twitter's current CEO, who added, "The consequences of this poll will be important."

In 2020, Twitter co-founder and then-CEO Jack Dorsey said the company would "probably never" add an edit button to its service.

In the announcement on Tuesday, Sullivan highlighted the edit button's potential to increase the amount of misleading content on Twitter.

"Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work," Sullivan tweeted. "Therefore, it will take time and we will be actively seeking input and adversarial thinking in advance of launching Edit."

Subscribers to Twitter Blue, a $3 per month subscription, currently have access to a feature that gives users a few seconds to correct a tweet before it's sent to the public.

Twitter shares finished up more than 2% on Tuesday, making it one of the best-performing tech stocks. That move caps a 27% jump on Monday after Musk's share purchase was announced.