Ever sent a direct message, or DM, on X (formerly Twitter) that you regret? Now you can edit DMs on X, as long as you’re on iOS.
The update comes after a more controversial change from last year, where X adjusted the direct message defaults to make it harder to message users who don’t follow you without paying for X Premium (then Twitter Blue). Luckily, this new feature is equally available to everyone regardless of their subscription status, and will be coming to other platforms in the future.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt
How to edit DMs on X
To edit a DM on X, you’ll need to be using the iPhone app—at least for now. After that, hop into any of your direct message conversations by clicking the envelope icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Find one of your DMs and long-press it to bring up a sub menu with emoji reactions, the ability to reply, and the new “Edit message” button, which is right next to an icon of a pen writing on a piece of paper.
Simply adjust your message in the text box that pops up and click the big blue arrow button in the bottom-right corner of that text box to send it. Just like that, you’ve edited a DM on X.
Your edited message will get a new “Edited” tag underneath it and any reactions will disappear and need to be reapplied, but it will otherwise work as usual. There doesn’t appear to be a time limit on how recent DMs can be before you can edit them, either—I was able to edit DMs from years ago without issue. The edited message will also retain the original’s timestamp.
There are still a few catches to keep in mind, though. The most important is that you can only edit a message five times. You also can’t edit messages attached to images, nor is there any way for iPhone users to see what a message looked like before it was edited. When the feature comes to Android and the web, it’ll work a little differently—rather than the old message changing, users will get a new message with the edits and the word “edited” in front of it.
