Twitter says it is working on introducing a highly-anticipated feature as Elon Musk's poll hits over 4 million votes

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By stefan armitage

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Twitter has confirmed that it is introducing a feature millions of users have been waiting a long time for.

Yes, despite already being a standard feature on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Twitter still has not introduced a simple button that allows users to edit their tweets.

This has resulted in years of frustrating spelling mistakes, misleading typos, and whatever Donald Trump was trying to say why he tweeted 'Covfefe'.

However, as reported by BBC News, Twitter has confirmed that it is working on an edit button that would allow its users to finally make changes to a tweet after it has been posted.

Twitter's Head of Consumer Product Jay Sullivan confirmed the news in a series of tweets on Tuesday, writing: "We’ve been exploring how to build an Edit feature in a safe manner since last year and plan to begin testing it within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months."

After explaining that it was been "the most requested Twitter feature for many years", Sullivan explained that the complications behind such a feature are down to factors such as "time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited".

"Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation. Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work," Sullivan adds.

The news also comes after billionaire Elon Musk - who recently snapped up a 9.2% stake in Twitter for $2.89 billion - polled his 80 million followers with the question: "Do you want an edit button?"

After receiving more than 4.4 million votes, a whopping 73.6% of those who voted said 'Yes'.

In response to Musk's poll, YouTuber Tim Dodd did voice his concerns over the feature though, explaining: "Under two conditions. It’s only available for a few minutes, 5-10 mins.

"And when an edit is made, there’s a small link that shows the edit. This keeps a public record but allows the tweeter the ability to fix a simple mistake and not re-notify their followers with a new tweet."

To these points, Musk simply responded: "That sounds reasonable."

After Musk's poll drew so much attention, Twitter was clearly overwhelmed with questions about the possibility of adding an edit button - and they wanted users to know that their efforts were not down to Musk's poll.

Sharing a tweet from its Twitter Comms account, the company said: "now that everyone is asking... yes, we’ve been working on an edit feature since last year!"

It then added: "no, we didn’t get the idea from a poll [winking emoji]".

Although there are definitely some concerns surrounding an edit feature on the social media platform, I'm sure many of us are looking forward to the day that it finally arrives.

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