A few weeks ago, we reported that Twitter was testing some kind of ‘Undo Send’ timer for tweets. This isn’t exactly the edit button everyone has been wishing for, but it would give users a few seconds to take back a bad tweet without anyone noticing. Developer Jane Manchun Wong has now surfaced more evidence that Twitter is working on the feature, but it comes with one caveat: you might have to pay for it.
Twitter is working on app subscription for paid features like “Undo Tweet” https://t.co/CrqnzIPcOH pic.twitter.com/Ct16Gk2RL1
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) March 19, 2021
As noted by Wong, the ‘undo tweet’ is seemingly meant to be a subscriber-only feature; you’d have to pay to access it. Of course, this is a leak, and anything can change between now and whenever the feature goes public (if it ever does). Still, Twitter has been looking into more ways to monetize its platform recently, so it’s not a complete surprise it might keep some features behind a paywall.
As a recap, Wong was the one who originally found evidence of Twitter’s tweet timer. It looked something like this:
Twitter is working on “Undo Send” timer for tweets pic.twitter.com/nS0kuijPK0
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) March 5, 2021
The feature seems to work something like Gmail’s undo button, where the service simply waits a few seconds before actually sending out your message. On the surface, that’s not much more useful than simply deleting a tweet immediately after sending it, but if you have a large number of followers it could help make sure nobody ever sees an embarrassing mistake.
Considering how many people have been asking for an edit button, you’d think Twitter might offer an undo button as a freebie compromise, but it looks like you’ll have to pay up instead. It remains to be seen whether a few extra features will enough to get people to pay for Twitter.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.