If there is one feature the Twitter faithful have been clamoring for since the beginning of time, it is the ability to edit tweets. Twitter has been fielding requests for the feature as far back as anyone can remember and the refusal to give users what they want has only become more apparent by recent updates to the social media platform that have changed just about everything except what you can do immediately after firing off a tweet.
Fortunately, dilemmas such as these are why third-party Twitter clients exist. And one of the more well-known ones on Android, Fenix, is working on an update that could solve that problem — admittedly in a roundabout way.
https://twitter.com/mttvll/status/877896651662340097
Matteo Villa, who is currently developing a significant upgrade to Fenix called Fenix 2, revealed on Twitter that he is testing a feature similar in practice to Gmail’s “undo send.” It would delay posting by a certain amount of time, providing a brief opportunity to take a tweet back after hitting the send button. In the example given, the editing window was five seconds, though Villa says it would be adjustable.
It’s not true editing, but if the favorable responses to the idea are any indication, most people do not seem to be very concerned. Many users compared the implementation to SMS app Textra, which provides a similar feature. Twitter actually released an update to its first-party app earlier this month intended to save users further embarrassment by issuing warnings for accidentally sending direct messages as public tweets.
In Fenix’s case, the tweet drops down from the top of the screen after being “sent.” A circular progress bar illustrates how much time is left to drop in and make any last-second changes. You can skip the delay with another send button, or hit cancel to bring up the compose window again. If you have a full-on change of heart and decide you made a mistake, you can delete the tweet just as you would a draft.
Fenix has been around for years, but Villa recently released a preview version of Fenix 2. You can take it for a spin for free, but Villa says the final release will be a paid upgrade. Be aware that the preview is still missing some more notable features, though you will still find an extensive suite of customization options for the interface and gestures to tailor the app to your usage.
