Twitter Edit Button Lite? New ‘Undo’ Feature Would Let You Erase Bad Tweets — For a Price

Like many sites, Twitter is working this year on offering “premium” features for paid subscribers. That reportedly includes a number of new functions — and “undo tweet” may be among them, as a screenshot shared by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong revealed on Friday.

Twitter users have long clamored to get an “edit” function added to tweets, a quest so quixotic that at this point the button would have to be windmill-shaped if it ever came out. But although Twitter has repeatedly shot down the edit idea, an “undo” feature might be just the compromise solution some folks are looking for. And it might even be familiar to you.

The idea is simple enough. After you tweet something, you’d have a limited amount of time to read your tweet, realize it’s terrible or boring or uses Trump spellings, and then “undo” the send before it hits the eyes of the world. Wong sent an example of the timer on the potential “undo” feature a few weeks ago.

You are probably familiar with this idea if you’re a Gmail user. The “undo send” there, which long ago was a Google add-on but became an integrated and default feature, is a pretty handy tool.

In an emailed response to CNET, Twitter has confirmed that they are indeed testing this feature.

CNET also mentioned a couple of other features that Twitter is considering, including Super Follows, which “would let you follow a creator or publisher for a monthly subscription fee and get exclusive content or newsletters.”

In other words, user created premium content for paid subscribers. (Hey if you’re going to plop down dollars for dumb tweets, I know just the person for your shopping list.)

The Twitter investor relations account tweeted about “Spaces” as well, which appears to be the idea of Twitter “communities,” and stated that the company would be testing the subscription-based products publicly over this next year.

So, when the new paid upgrade version of Twitter comes out, it’s likely you’ll have a chance, when dashing off an angry tweet, to change your mind after you hit send. That instant regret period, enhanced by the pointed stare of the timer, may just help control some of our worst impulses, be they grammatical or spiritual.

Then again, you’ve probably still sent emails you later regretted. It’s unfortunate life itself doesn’t have an undo or rewind. Although if it did, you might undo upgrading to paid Twitter after you realize that you just paid for Twitter, so…