Twitter is finally testing feature people have been wanting for years

Twitter is finally testing a feature out that people have been requesting for years, although it's proving to be rather divisive.

With the social media platform only allowing for 280 characters per message, users are limited with how much they can put in one tweet.

And once you've posted it, that's it - you can either leave it up with the mistakes or delete the tweet entirely and post a new one.

But this is all set to change after the bosses at Twitter announced that they're testing out an edit button.

In a post shared today (1 September), it wrote: "if you see an edited Tweet it's because we're testing the edit button. this is happening and you'll be okay."

While some people are into the idea, others aren't too pleased about the decision, with one writing: "Welp, It was fun while it lasted… Twitter was special because it was immutable."

Another said, "I think that people who want an edit button don't realize that it is difficult enough to follow discussions in branching threads without people constantly changing what they said in their tweets."

A third added: "Edit button on twitter will literally ruin its legacy. People can easily manipulate their old and problematic tweets and wash their sins."

"Not having an edit button is what makes Twitter special and tweets reliable," said another, while a fifth wrote, "We are about to lose Twitter's originality."

A number of people have been held accountable over offensive tweets they shared in the past, and it looks like many are concerned that this new feature will allow them to essentially erase their social media history.

However, Twitter told LADbible that the feature is only in the testing stage and it will hope to iron out any issues, for example by only allowing people to edit their tweets a limited number of times in the 30 minutes after publishing.

A spokesperson for the platform said: "We’re excited to share that Edit Tweet is now being tested by our team internally and will then initially be expanded to Twitter Blue subscribers in the coming weeks. 

"Like any new feature, we’re intentionally testing Edit Tweet with a smaller group to help us identify and resolve potential issues before it’s shared with the public.

"Since this is our most requested feature, we want to make sure we get it right.

"From testing, we hope to quickly understand how this new feature is being used and its impact on the way people read and write Tweets."

They added: "In this test, Tweets will be able to be edited a few times in the 30 minutes following their publication.

"Edited Tweets will appear with an icon, timestamp, and label so it’s clear to readers that the original Tweet has been modified.

"Tapping the label will take viewers to Edit History, which includes past versions of the Tweet for context."