Will Elon Musk Make Tweet Modifying a Actuality?

Are you prepared for an edit possibility to your tweets?

After years of it being essentially the most requested tweet improve, and repeated rebuffs from
Twitter itself, together with numerous justifications for why it could actually’t occur, plainly Elon Musk is wanting to make use of his newfound sway as the company’s biggest shareholder (and newest board member) to make tweet enhancing a actuality.

As you may see, practically 4 million folks have voted in Musk’s ballot, with 73.5% of them in favor of an edit possibility.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal additionally prompt that it might properly change into a actuality, with this callback to Musk’s own tweet on how Twitter is being run.

In actual fact, Twitter really famous late final week that it’s engaged on an edit button.

Although the particular date noticed it dismissed as a joke – however in response to Twitter’s Michael Sayman, one other new voice at the company, possibly not.

That’s nonetheless considerably unclear, however the accumulation of all of those parts does appear to recommend that Twitter is at the least exploring an edit possibility as soon as once more, which might properly be launched quickly, making each Agrawal and Musk appear to be saviors for the post-Jack Dorsey period of the app.

As famous, Twitter has lengthy resisted requires an edit button, with Dorsey citing concerns round customers altering retweeted messages after the very fact, whereas additionally suggesting that the extra concise nature of tweets leaves them much more inclined to delicate edits that might be problematic in numerous methods.

In actual fact, in early 2020, Dorsey pretty much killed off any hopes of an edit option ever making it to the dwell atmosphere – although that was earlier than Twitter added an ‘Undo’ option for paying Twitter Blue subscribers which, in some methods, supplies the closest it appeared we’d get to a type of tweet clarification.

I imply, it’s not enhancing. Deleting and re-sharing an up to date tweet is just about what you are able to do already. However given Dorsey’s earlier statements on the potential of an edit possibility, within a short window after posting, it appeared like this was it, and would solely be obtainable in case you paid up.

However Dorsey has moved on, gone off into the world of crypto evangelism, whereas Musk has moved in, bringing with him his seemingly insatiable want for consideration and adoration. Inside that, tweet enhancing now does appear very very similar to a possible actuality – although as with each Twitter replace, I’d additionally warning in opposition to pinning an excessive amount of hope on it being the factor that can resolve all of your tweet issues, and convey concord to the app.

Spoiler alert: It received’t.

That’s to not say it received’t be a helpful addition, however I really feel like most Twitter modifications get blown massively out of proportion, just for curiosity to die down inside just a few days, as per the nice Twitter Circle of Life.

Longer tweets was a disaster, until every week later when it wasn’t. Audio tweets had celebrities sharing like mad – for about two days in complete. Altering stars to hearts was the loss of life knell for the app, whereas Fleets was an annoyance for, what, a matter of hours?

As with each Twitter pattern, it’s the largest, most essential, most important factor on the planet at the moment, on which everybody looks like they must share a novel take (be aware: typically not distinctive). After which it isn’t. Identical to that.

I think tweet enhancing would be the similar, a sudden spike within the Google Tendencies chart for mentions of ‘edit button’, recorded for all posterity within the web’s good reminiscence. Then nobody will care anymore.

We’ll use it, certain, it’ll be okay. However in a lot the identical manner that Clubhouse’s early invite-only method helped to juice its hype cycle, the one actual purpose folks care a lot about tweet enhancing is as a result of Twitter has denied it to them. If it had been inbuilt from the beginning, it will be a nothing course of, the identical as it’s on Instagram, Fb, and so forth. However absence has made the hearts of Twitter customers develop extra demanding – however in actuality, as soon as it’s right here, it’ll solely be a novelty for a matter of hours for every consumer.

However it might be a PR winner – and once more, everyone knows that Elon is eager to be the good billionaire in historical past, wielding a flame thrower in a single hand and a ticket to Mars on the opposite.

Cyber vehicles are cool, proper? And memes and relationship musicians and occurring fashionable podcasts. Elon Musk very clearly desires the standing, and with billions to throw into such, he could properly have sufficient to make tweet enhancing a actuality.

Marvel if he sees the $3 billion he spend on Twitter inventory as being important in his efforts to keep away from taxes ‘preserve the light of consciousness’?