Twitter is finally giving you editable tweets... but only as part of its new test: Notes.
Notes are story posts on and off Twitter that can exceed 280 characters and include images, GIFs, embedded tweets, and videos. They can also, yes, finally, be edited before and after publication.
Twitter introduced the new feature on Wednesday in, naturally, its own note (opens in a new tab).
To be clear, Notes aren't exactly Tweets. They live in the Twitter timeline space, but long posts currently lack a number of basic Twitter features, including likes, retweets, and replies.
Also, your Notes collection will be stored in a separate Notes tab on your Twitter profile.
In the post, Twitter explains the rationale behind the introduction of Notes:
"Since the early days of the company, writers have relied on Twitter to share their work, get attention, get read, create conversations—everything but the actual writing. With Notes, the goal is to fill that missing space and help writers to find whatever kind of success they want.
Since 2015, it is the home of @revue. As of today, @revue is now part of @TwitterWrite. pic.twitter.com/BanKBm172622June 2022, XNUMX
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In some ways, it's less about making Tweets great and more about Twitter fully integrating Revue, the newsletter platform it acquired in 2021 (opens in a new tab).
In fact, Twitter changed the Twitter Review handle to @TwitterWrite to better align with the embedded notes.
If all of this sounds familiar, the whole endeavor might seem a bit, well, like SubStack. This is also probably intentional. Substack is a content platform that blurs the line between newsletters and online publishers. Build an extensive collection of bespoke media brands.
Twitter has a lot more voices on its platform, but, so far, all of them have been limited to 280-character Tweets or massive Threads, which Twitter, by the way, isn't giving up. They could use Twitter's Revue newsletter platform, but Revue isn't necessarily as well known as SubStack. With Notes, Twitter can bring the big content scene to its most popular space.
The fact that there will now be something on Twitter where you can post (or post) and then edit is a big deal. We know Twitter is working on better ways to allow editable Tweets. Maybe Notes will let you try some ideas.
It's not like it's a blanket test. For the next two months, Notes will only be available to a small group of writers in the US, Canada, UK, and Ghana. Twitter has not identified any of these perpetrators. Personally, I hope it includes Active Tweeter and Horror Master Stephen King (opens in a new tab).
As of this writing, potential Twitter owner Elon Musk has yet to comment on the availability of the Notes.