The social media giant is testing out a feature that allows users to undo their tweets. Many speculate the anticipated feature will be part of a possible subscription service. | Juana Garcia/The Cougar
Popular social media site Twitter is working on a new feature allowing users to “undo” their tweets seconds after sending them.
The feature will give users the ability to fix any errors, and the chance to reconsider a tweet before it goes public.
The option is similar to the “undo send” button from Google’s Gmail, where after hitting tweet, users will have a limited duration to reconsider their post.
The undo button will also serve as a progress bar, indicating the amount of time left to hit the button.
As a site popular among college students, Twitter actively develops new features to produce high engagement from its users.
In June 2020, the social media giant introduced voice tweets, a popular feature used to send voice recordings as tweets.
While voice notes were a massive hit, biology junior Bailey Pham sees the undo feature as a potential miss for the social media site.
“I think the idea of an undo feature is unnecessary,” said Pham. “Twitter has evolved so much since it first started, and it is a place where people can put out their thoughts and ideas as they see it.”
As an avid Twitter user, Pham believes users should take more responsibility for what they post.
To her, responsibility involves users understanding thinking before they post.
“Many users should know that once they post something, it is out there for good,” she said. “ It is also pretty useless since there is always an option to delete tweets.”
While the undo button is in the testing stage, app researcher Jane Manchun Wong discovered the feature might come with a subscription fee.
While it may come as a surprise, the idea of charging their users isn’t one foreign to Twitter.
In addition to developing new features for the app, Twitter has also considered finding additional streams of revenue.
The social media giant was one of many companies severely impacted by the pandemic, enduring a 23 percent decrease in revenue, according to Business Insider.
A potential subscription service will allow Twitter to charge its users for premium features while loosening their reliance on advertisement revenue.
How much it will cost or when it will happen is unknown, but Pham worries it might drive away many users.
“I would not pay for a subscription service if offered,” she said. “I think if Twitter started charging people, they would lose many of the users that have been using Twitter since it first began.”
However, at a virtual analyst event, Twitter revealed a potential subscription service feature for creators in February.
Officially named Super Follow, popular users can earn money from their followers with exclusive tweets and posts.
In return, subscribers will receive subscriber-only newsletters, deals and discounts.
The subscription will cost $4.99 per month, but it is unknown when Twitter will officially make it available to its users.
